I'm considering purchasing the great looking LHC Robin DR400, but I can't find any information on whether it's possible to integrate the RXP GNS-430. Does anyone know?

Just to update this, in case anyone else was wondering:

 

I emailed Bill at LHC to ask him, since I couldn't find any info in any of the popular forums. His answer (quick answer, by the way!) was that it could drop in to the VC, but that buttons may or may not line up. So, I decided to take advantage of the sale that he has going on atm on this plane, and try it out for myself. :lol:

 

Mini-mini-review (read: 48 minutes total flight time): This was a bit of an impulse purchase. I saw on my news aggregation app on my iphone this morning a forum post from one of the other major forums that there was a sale on this plane this weekend, so I spent some (a lot of!) time while at work researching it. I think the RL plane just looks neat. I don't know if you could call it pretty, so neat is definitely a better word. I compared screenshots of the LHC version against the recent Aerosoft version. The models look pretty close, but they obviously feature slightly different interiors / dash. I decided I liked the layout of the dash on the LHC version better, plus it has a GNS-430 in the stack. Since I recently purchased the RXP version, it made the LHC model even more tempting.

 

I obviously haven't had much time in it yet, just a short trip north of PAKT. ( I almost always try out new stuff at PAKT. Big runway, that by simply flying down the channel is easy to line up on for landing.) Nice looking VC. Lots of nice 3D work in it, decent textures. Starts easy. For some reason I found taxing a bit strange, the plane wanted to turn very easy, but I got used to it by the time I reached the runway. Throttled up with the brakes on, brakes wouldn't hold the plane, so I let'er rip. Handles very smooth, seems very easy to trim out and fly. The framerates were extremely good, pretty much on par with a default plane. The Ketchikan region is pretty easy on frames (which is another reason why I test planes there), but I was able to hold my lock of 60 fps no problem.

 

Headed out over the water and around some of the nearby islands. Changed the time to dusk to check out the VC lighting. Very nice as well, very soft. Changed back to day and headed back to PAKT. Started my approach a bit late, found it a bit hard to bleed speed without extending the flaps at an unrealistic speed. My fault! Anyways, got the speed down to a manageable rate, and made a good decent from there. I was able to flare and settle the plane onto the runway with a level of precision that almost never happens the first few times I take a new plane up. :rolleyes:

 

As for the VC RXP integration, I simply plugged it in at the exact co-ords of the one that was there. It works fine, and pleasingly enough, the majority of the buttons line up really well. The left hand knob and the power button / dial textures are off enough to be sort of skewed, and if you really look close you can tell that one or two of the buttons don't line up exactly perfectly, but it's nowhere near bad enough to wish for a flat panel.

 

I'm more than pleased with my purchase. I think I would of been pleased at the regular price, but with the sale I feel like I got a pretty sweet deal. I've spent far more on planes that I barely use, and I don't think that'll be the case here!

Because of your post Jim I have just purchased the Robin but have a problem during installation you may be able to help with.

 

The installer says it wants to overwrite some write-proteced files, do you know which files it overwrites?

 

I have asked at Lionheart but thought I would you as well.

 

TIA

 

Vulcan

To be honest, I don't recall seeing the message! Then again, I was multi-tasking at the time, with a little 6 month old on my lap, fascinated by my saitek yoke. :rolleyes:

 

One option of course, is to simply point the installer to a dummy fsx directory. I often do this for freeware that has an installer, so that I can organize scenery how I want. I rarely do it for payware purchases though.

The installer says it wants to overwrite some write-proteced files, do you know which files it overwrites?

 

Why don't you install it into a temporary folder and see what files it's installing? Then compare that to what you have on your system already. A lot of times it's effects files or sound files that are just being replaced.

Thanks guys for your replies.

 

I've just had an email from Bill suggesting the same thing, use a temporary folder....why didn't I think of that :Doh: