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Robin DR400-120

Messages
16
Country
france
Good morning,

I'm currently working on a Robin DR400-120 using the FSX SDK. It will be a payware, regardless the way I'll distribute the airplane. This is a first try for me, since I've worked only on freewares up to now (mainly the Dassault Rafale Marine) See : http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103044&highlight=rafale.


2012-6-3_12-23-1-992 par macsenescam, sur Flickr

Here some pics to figure out what I'm talking about. The only representation of the airplane was a version originaly designed for FS2002 by Yannick LAVIGNE, Fred BENTING and Rob YOUNG. It has since been adapted to FSX. It's mainly thanks to their awesome work that it stayed all this years the only one DR400 here around.


2012-5-28_21-6-54-669 par macsenescam, sur Flickr

My goal is to start from scratch, and to focus my version on an aircraft currently in use at the flying-club of Darois, near Dijon, France. It's actually the town where the DR family were built. Or are built. I don't really know ;) . There is some juridical struggle between two or three companies, it's a bit hard to be up-to-date these days.


2012-5-28_21-8-6-893 par macsenescam, sur Flickr

Thir peculiar was chosen 'cause, :eek: well, it's actually on this aircraft I learned to fly. :cool:


2012-5-17_20-32-35-497 par macsenescam, sur Flickr

You can follow my work here : http://lenclume-de-mjolnir.blogspot.fr/

Here, I try to use good french, so it should be Google Trad friendly ^^.

Thanks for your time and good day.
 
D

Deleted member 11333

Guest
Looks nice, let's wait for the final addon.
 
Messages
349
Country
unitedkingdom
That looks great. Seems like a later model, with the cowling looking a bit more sleek than I remember (or perhaps it is just my memory - I only ever saw the cowling from slightly above).

Nice... Love the 'ribs' look on the shrunken wing material....

They used Dacron over wood, making the Dobbin one of the nicest, quietest aircraft I ever flew, and the low weight meant that they got a lot out of even a 108HP engine (better performance than a 140 Cherokee, for example). Strap on a 180HP DR400 and you have to zoom climb on departure (if you're using flaps on a soft field) just to keep below Vfl - it really accelerates. The in-flight vis is astounding - I transitioned from AA5s and Cherokees and was forever climbing in my early flights because the distance between the horizon and the coaming was so much greater for straight & level.

The cranked wing also gives better lift in the climb for almost no increase in drag (and no extra drag in the cruise), and doesn't materially affect lookout in the 3 or 9 o'clock either. Stalls required care, a low-speed climbing turn could flick into an opposite spin (upper wing stalling first - outer section also generating less lift). Happened to me once as I was practicing slow flight - and I didn't try it again. I'm a fan of these and still fly Yannick's Robin in the sim now and then (the sounds for that one are just perfect too).

Since I'm an FS9'er I will evidently be sticking with Yannick's, but this one looks great too.

Just wish I could afford one...especially with nice weather outside.

Using Dacron makes me wonder - if we go along with the old myth of airliners becoming coke cans, do DR400s come back as plastic bottles?
 
Messages
16
Country
france
Hi,

Mine is actually an old model, the cowling changed toward a more Cessna-like one.

The later version of the DR400 carries a 135hp diesel engine (feeded with Jet-A1), the cowlings looks like this (done for future development) :


rendu11 par macsenescam, sur Flickr

I flew as a passenger once in this one, and the handling of the engine was quite easy, but a bit different from what I knew. The difference comes actually with the constant-speed propeller.
 
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Messages
349
Country
unitedkingdom
My only passenger rides in a Robin were both terrifying. The later one, Rochester-Headcorn in a long lunch from work, was okay apart from the departure from Headcorn, when my seat lock failed and the seat slid to its rear stop, which since the Robin had just rotated and was about 100ft up, did nothing for the CofG. Fortunately the pilot (a work colleague) recovered from the surprise of me vanishing backwards and shoved the stick forward. I'd been "following through" with a light hold on the stick and fortunately had the sense to immediately let go!

The earlier trip, in the late 70s, was Rotterdam-Seppe and was a catalogue of slip-ups. Seppe was wet grass, and he landed long enough to have to slew the aircraft at the far end. We stopped with about 4 feet to run before the wire fence. On departure he didn't use all the runway (wet, long grass...) and we just about staggered over the raised motorway bridge at the western end of the runway, partly because the t/o run was interruped by the canopy sliding backwards at about 50kts because it wasn't fastened properly, he just slid it closed and fastened it in the t/o run! He'd had lots of experience and the ink on my license was still wet, so I didn't know what to say.

The compensation was being formated on by a Phantom (WGAF) en-route back to Rotterdam, we at full throttle and he with full flap and high AoA - but we did it! It was quite impressive when he cleaned up the F4 and lit the afterburners (boy racers, what can you do?).

The DR400's an inspired airframe all round. A friend of mine owns one, but sadly keeps it in the south of France where I'm ... not.

That's a really nice cs prop you've modelled there, even on the DR400 it looks right (I'm used to seeing 2 blades fixed). I have seen images of a DR400 (500?) with 4 blades and smaller prop diameter which looks just strange to me.

Was it the diesel controls that made the engine better to manage? I know the DA42 Twinstar's diesel option has just a pair of go-faster levers, and the engine automation does all the rest - well, until they made a Lycoming version when it began to look more conventional again. On yet another side-note, the DR400-180 (I think) did have an engine quirk of its own, where there was a red rev band you had to avoid in the middle of the range. You couldn't stay in that band for more than a minute or two because the engine would build up a destructive resonance. The last -180 I flew didn't have that problem, so I assume it was peculiar to a few engines, or some particular sub-model of engine.

I have to say that after flying a great many aircraft in my life, the Robins just have charm, and they're so nicely proportioned, very pleasing to the eye.
 
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Messages
16
Country
france
All this testimonies sounds familiar for me indeed ^^. Never forget to lock the canopy, and take care to check the locking of the seat before t-o.

I had actually a flight scheduled this morning, but the weather here, near LFSD wasn't quite OK. We had some hail yesterday.

I've got some cool souvenirs too... It was late afternoon, I was practicing solo-patterns under the control of my instructor, when I received a message from an other aircraft... I didn't understand what he was saying (my english wasn't like it's today). My instructor clarified the situation with the aircraft, then said to me to continue the final approach, and that I'll be overtake on my right by the aircraft in question. It was actually a collectionner's L-39 saying hello to his home airfield during a training session with an instructor. This day, I had a big smile when touching the runway :D. That changed from my frowned-in-concentration usual face ^^.

About the four-bladed DR400 you've seen, it's probably a glider-towing aircraft.

Bye,

Bruno.
 
Messages
349
Country
unitedkingdom
Says something about the Robin, that all these jet jockeys want to be seen in formation with one! :D

I have some film of a DR400 formation sortie (G-BPTT with my wife in the other Robin, G-BKDI) that I ought to put on Youtube some time, once I've chosen the music!
 
Messages
946
Country
panama
Great work!!!, congratulations....;), looks better than anything in the market today.
 
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