FAQ
How to participate in building the Frequently Asked Questions ?
Participate by sending your questions or those regularly asked to documentation@robin-aircraft.com even better, offer us your personal answer !
What are the approvals held by Robin New Aircraft ?
Robin New Aircraft is approved by EASA as a production organisation for light aircraft under EASA 21G. 0244 under the following Type Certificates: TC34 (DR200 and 250) TC40 (DR220 and 221) TC42 (DR253) TC45 (DR300, 400 and 400/500) TC61(HR100 and R1000) old TC70 (HR200 and R2000) repair design only TC172 (R3000) TC178 (ATL) The design and spare parts for new aircraft produced by Robin New Aircraft are provided by CEAPR, associated with Robin New Aircraft through a cooperation contract. CEAPR holds a Part21J design approval and a Part 21G production approval for spare parts for its type certificates. Robin Aircraft holds an Part M aircraft maintenance shop approval under number FR.MF.0136.
How do spare parts work ?
How to order an illustrated spare parts catalogue? They can all be downloaded from our website on the CEAPR partner site: -Customer Support tab -Documentation Center Tab You must have a basic subscription and an additional subscription for the IPC (Illustrated Parts Catalogue) you are looking for. These subscriptions are payable only by credit card. How to order spare parts? Consult the "customer support" section in the menu on the right at the top of this page, then "spare parts" and follow the guide! As soon as you have received your access codes by email, you will be able to place your price requests and orders in real time on the CEAPR partner site. You are informed by email of quotations, order confirmations and invoices (with the carrier's traceability number) that you can consult online and print at home. You can also access the list of your order balances with constantly updated delivery times. To order a part, I need its reference (The famous P/N, Part Number) How to find it? Several possibilities: 1- You must find on the part, if it is sufficiently recent, a label indicating in particular the part reference. 2- The workshop kept the Form1 conformity document issued by CEAPR and delivered with the spare part: the reference appears with the designation. 3- You have an illustrated catalogue of the spare parts of your aircraft in its latest version: you identify the part on the plate corresponding to its installation in the aircraft and thanks to the mark you read on the page opposite the plate the reference you are looking for. 4- You still don't find it? Call us on 0380 352 512 We'll do our best to help you find it. How do I know where my orders are being processed? By consulting my CEAPR spare parts account: -List of order residues You will find updated deadlines and possible comments. What are the possibilities for payment? Payment is made in any case before the delivery of the parts on the basis of the invoice sent to you by email when the package is ready. You can have your order delivered by cash on delivery: the delivery will take place at the address you have indicated but you will have to be present and prepare the cheque for a reception for which you do not know the exact time in advance. Cash on delivery charges will be levied by the carrier or the Post Office. If you wish to pay by bank transfer or cheque, send your cheque to our accounting department in Darois: the invoiced documents will be sent to you as soon as payment is received. This method of payment includes a charge: 30€ per delivery. Finally, you can choose to pay free of charge by credit card, which avoids all the inconveniences of other payment methods. Your parts leave the same day. Do you have a group delivery service to allow me to decide for myself when I want to receive my parts? Yes, this service is offered free of charge but is only available if you have chosen to pay by credit card. The parts are set aside for you as they become available. You are informed by email of the invoice corresponding to each partial delivery in store: it allows you to know exactly what is ready to ship for you. When you believe that you have enough parts, you ask us to deliver by any means, specifying the desired invoice numbers if you do not want everything ready to be sent to you immediately. You save on packaging and shipping costs! The shipping costs are too high for "small" parts! Deliveries with an equivalent value of less than 100 euros excluding VAT are deferred unless we no longer have any other orders in hand for you or you give a contrary instruction. Attention! These parts are not "reserved" and can therefore be reassigned to another customer before a new shipment can take place for you! (unless you have chosen the "delayed delivery" service, see previous FAQ, because in this case the parts are "reserved" for you) Why are not all the parts available right away? Of course, we give priority to the parts that are most often ordered, i.e. wear parts. Sometimes we are out of stock even for these parts because we have to face an unexpected change: - The part is the subject of a technical evolution to integrate an improvement of its safety, its lifespan, its manufacturing cost. - The supplier of the raw material or equipment disappears and no supplier takes over. In all cases, it is necessary to design, draw, test, justify by demonstration and testing, and obtain approval from EASA. A process full of pitfalls, the end of which is always difficult to predict with precision. Our order confirmations and backorders inform you about these disruptive events! For parts that are rarely ordered, the lead times are often long: they are manufactured to order, in sufficient number so that the price is not dissuasive and, to give them priority, we sometimes wait until we have, for example, 2 orders to start manufacturing 5 articles of the same reference. We do our best to serve you, often for aircraft that have been out of production for more than twenty years! Thank you for your understanding.
How do I approve a repair ?
I HAVE A REPAIR TO PERFORM THAT IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE AIRCRAFT REPAIR MANUAL. HOW CAN I GET HELP ? If you know what you want to do and only need advice from CEAPR's technical management, add your draft repair approval file as an attachment to the message you can send from the "customer support" section in the menu on the left. If you wish CEAPR to design and write your approval file, state your need in the same way: the technical department will contact you by return through the customer support manager.
What repair or maintenance work is currently being carried out in your workshops in Darois ?
CEAPR has decided to limit its maintenance offer to operations for which its customers cannot be found near a qualified workshop: typically, the most technical work (heavy carpentry, aluminium boiler making, type transformation) or reserved by nature (prototypes and development, repairs of original parts and warranty processing) which require production tools or technical responsibility of the manufacturer. Routine maintenance and repair work is most often carried out at a lower cost and with a shorter downtime by the local aero workshop. We are therefore focusing on improving our service to workshops as a priority in order to improve their service to our common customers together.
Which propellers are approved for my aircraft ?
This information is included in your aircraft's airworthiness sheet. They can be downloaded from our partner site using the Documentation Center tab in Customer Support on our site. A very reasonably priced subscription is required to view the documentation online.
The nose wheel causes runway exits ?
The front axle is designed so that the wheel always locks in the "right in the axis" position whenever the shock absorber is sufficiently "relieved", i. e. when the shock absorber is no longer compressed immediately after take-off. Objective of the system: to avoid having a front wheel "turned" on landing due to the effect of the action on the rudders and therefore... avoid the runway excursion (and also the nasty drag in flight). On landing, to regain control (i.e. directional use of the front wheel on the rudder pedal), once the front wheel is upright, the blockage must be released and the front wheel shock absorber compressed. To do this, and just after touching the front wheel, simply put the forward/neutral sector handle smoothly and if there is a crosswind, put it forward/neutral sector in the wind. If you are centred at the rear or if the shock absorber has difficulty compressing due to, for example, excessive pressure in the workshop or excessive speed on the final stretch, it is necessary to first increase the sector stick before and only then, if necessary, brake symmetrically to compress the recalcitrant shock absorber. Where does the plane come from when the wind blows across the runway and the front wheel is blocked? Technically, it is simply the action of the wind on the tail (the windvane effect) that puts the nose of the aircraft in the wind while the front wheel has remained blocked "straight in the axis". At debriefing, you will find that the touch speed was excessive (resulting in too much lift and therefore a persistent ground effect that lightens the nose gear), that the stick remained aft sector... and that the nose gear did not compress. On the ground, at the manoeuvring bar, the same cause produces the same effects: if the front wheel does not want to leave its "locked straight ahead" position, it must be compressed by "hanging" from the propeller (and especially not from the cone which is not designed to resist this!!!!). This blockage often occurs after the aircraft is pushed by the propeller and the nose of the aircraft is unintentionally lifted/relieved. Robins and Alphas are not alone in having this driving characteristic but they do not share it with the much heavier Cessna, especially the nose! Hence probably the surprise of converts who are caught in a robin landing like with their Cessna: it is certainly not a pleasant memory and misunderstanding quickly transforms the incident into inconsolable apprehension. For other relevant analyses, see REC Info of 05/2004 and INFO PILOT of October 2005. See also the 2006 BEA study "Technical control during landing and self-knowledge. Analysis of runway overruns in 2006 in general aviation" on http://www.bea.aero/fr/publications/etudes/analyses.php
Can I leave my Robin outdoors all year round ?
Let your dear plane sleep outside? Nobody likes that for their car and we don't see why we should ask their plane what they save on their car! However, a wooden and canvas aircraft will perform as well and generally much better than a metal or composite aircraft in this case: Of course, the paint varnish will tarnish more quickly on the parking lot; but car or plane, metal or wood and canvas, the paint is exactly the same! On the other hand, in terms of corrosion, the wooden and canvas construction will be much more resistant to outdoor parking: no corrosion and no humidity, neither for the wood nor for the Dacron canvas! (In fact, the real danger is the closed hangar! Make sure to keep it well ventilated and/or fly regularly) What about the snow and ice in the early morning? In winter, use custom-made tarpaulins. It's still easier! All owners and Professional Flying Schools know it: metal or wood and canvas, same solution! But if you get caught one morning, you can use without fear: AeroShell Compound 07. Or any other equivalent GLYCOL-FREE product. Our polyurethane paints of today perfectly protect the aircraft's structure. Use as little liquid as possible and with as little pressure as possible. The liquid must NOT be spilled into the fuselage or wing through the control surface inlets (ailerons, depths, etc.). A sponge and a bucket (and well insulated gloves!) are more than enough. No heat or vaporization under pressure. The purpose is simply to remove frost and ice without mechanical abrasion. Think of the paint on your aircraft as a car paint and your de-icing fluid as the cleaning fluid on your car windshield. They are compatible! And if your paint has blisters or cracks, avoid introducing de-icing fluid in these areas. Avoid contact with acrylic canopies (Perspex, Plexiglas, Lucite, etc.). If your aircraft is covered with a thick blanket of snow, put it in a heated hangar or wait for the sun! This recommendation concerns flight safety, not environmental or medical issues.