I did 40 mins aero training in a Robin and found it delightful to fly:)

Its actually more of a mare's nest than that. There is a network of companies that are run or owned by chums of the old Apex CEO. These companies are completely independent of Apex/CEAPR - yeah, right. He is still heavily involved in the business and defends his property with some vigour in the courts.

But alongside that is the major growth of Dyn'Aviation run by the son of the Robin founder that has taken over parts of the CEAPR empire.

They are both on the Dijon-Darois airfield but the hostility is plane (sic) to see.

It's been 4 years now since Apex went down the pan, and it is still on-going to a greater or lesser extent.

What a shame, as the Robins are a fantastic aircraft. The Dyn'Aviation DR2 proposal looks very interesting

http://www.aerodif.fr/en/iso_album/a...viigb_indd.pdf

Finished DR400 with Garmin G500 EFIS
 

The finished article:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/...82b9b7e0_b.jpg

DR400 G500 complete | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Greetings,

I have flown the DR400 not so long ago for the very first time on a trip to Popham, with a friend of mine that normally rents this a/c:

JetPhotos.Net Photo » G-CONB (CN: 2176) Private Robin DR400/180 Régent by Brian Whitelegg

I have to admit that of all the types I have flown the robin is up there (I still love the TB10 more :E ).
Going back to the robin, it has a great performance and excellent visibility from the cockpit, and might (considering several options) even continue my PPL on one of them.

wigglyamp,

Great finish, I love it!!!

Love flying the Robin, having trouble finding an aero club that has one as a trainer near London - grateful to anyone with advice here. Thanks!

Looks amazing. I am very envious of whoever owns that.

Wigglyamp - thanks, lovely looking cockpit. Out of interest, how did you/somebody go about designing the instrument layout? It looks really excellent, but I'm just curious as to how the decisions were made.

G

Genghis
 

All the avionic work and panel layout are the work of Lees Avionics, who built it with the inital input from the customer.

Lees Avionics - Home

What you cant see is the structual work that had to be carried out for the mounting of the avionic boxes and flux detector, this was done by Flight Composites.

Flight Composites

A and C is almost correct! Lees designed the instrument panel and the complicated shelf assy between the panel and firewall which carries the AHRS, ADC, autopilot pitch computer and a few minor peripherals. Flight Composites produced and installed the magentometer bracket which is mounted 1/2 span in the starbaord wing, and they also arranged wooden mounts in the aft fuselage for the emergency attitude battery and traffic processor and fitted a nylon conduit in the starboard wing to support the wire harness. Lees draw and approved the Flight Composites work as part of the EASA STC. The instrument panel fabrication was farmed-out to a specialist sheet metal shop who also dealt with paint match and silk-screen printing - far better than the sticky labels on the factory-standard panel.

Panel layout has to conform to guidance in FAA AC23-1311-1b so this dictates the position of standby instruments. 2" versions were used as insufficient panel space was available for standard 3" instruments when an autopilot is fitted. Options exist for non-autopilot aircraft to retain the original instruments as standbys, which will reduce the cost significatly.
The customer wanted 2" standbys in the glareshield in a horizontal arrangement but this wasn't possible due to existing structure constraints.

The aircraft will be on show with Mistral Aviation/SJ Aviation at the Goodwood Festival of Speed aviation event and you can meet us there as well!

That cockpit looks very good - one could sit for hours in that playing with the toys and not even bother flying!

What was the budget for it btw? Presumably more than the airframe value:)

I was going to ask the same Q.... how much was that plane worth before the job was done, and how much is it worth afterwards?

I was quoted 48k euros for installing a G500 in my panel, by Socata. This included a GNS430W. UK installed prices are not much lower by the time everything is taken into account. With my plane being worth about 140k euros (not the 200-250k euros asked for in the typical "in denial" advert ;) ) it might be worth doing - if it made it go faster :)

The development aircraft for the G500 STC is almost new - it's the demonstrator Diesel-powered version with the 155 CDI engine, so the cost of the mod against the hull value is not as bad as you might imagine.

A typical G500 in the average American metal aircraft will go from £22K to £27K depending on whether you have an existing GNS430W or not - this is the minimum GPS spec that must be installed. An existing 430 or 530 can be upgraded to a WAAS unit if needed - cheaper than fitting a new box. Beyond that, you can add options for traffic (as in the Robin), Synthetic vision, Jeppeson charts, live datalink weather (in a month or so).

Does that include all the current paperwork i.e. PRNAV, LPV approach approval, etc?

The single GNS430W installation is not included within the STC and is a separate EASA minor change, which includes BRNav and GPS non-precision approach. As mentioned on other threads, PRNav and APV are STCs in their own right and this was not part of the spec for the Robin project.

The 172/PA28 will never suffer from woodworm :-)

How much would PRNAV and APV cost extra?

Nor will they ever suffer from great visibility and being a joy to fly!

What you can't see can't worry you ;) Ignorance is bliss :)

Blasting a light PA28-236 out of a short field is some of the most fun I've had in a aeroplane.

Likewise, landing a 172 with flaps forty into a tight space, safely.

Depends what turns you on.

People like you are bores, frankly, if you cannot get enjoyment out of a pastime that was not available to people a few generations ago. I'd quite happily fly anything, rather than nothing - the pure joy of flight appears to pass some by.

BTW, I have the Regent in my logbook and found it like a Citroen, quirky, but ultimately rewarding.

Er... Did you take an overreaction pill with your breakfast this morning.