Your chance to loop ze loop – French style!

Enjoy aerobatic manoeuvres in the French designed Robin 2160 light aircraft

Enjoy aerobatic manoeuvres in the French designed Robin 2160 light aircraft

Being fans of all things French, we pricked up our ears when we heard we had to write about our new aerobatics experience in Norfolk in the French built and designed Robin 2160i light aircraft.

A good looking little plane, the low-wing aerobatics trainer is a recent evolution of the Robin H series plane, which was designed based on the original Jean Delemontez-designed Robin series by Christophe Heintz. The first prototype flew on the 19th July 1971. The first in the R2000 series flew on the 15th January 1975 and went into production in 1977.

Since then, Apex Aircraft bought out Avions Robin and the company relaunched the R2000 series with the R2160 model that was in production from 1994 to 2004. Then Robin goes down under with the worldwide production rights being bought by Alpha Aviation of New Zealand, so our nippy French aerobatics plane now has a little Kiwi flavour to it, but fear not it’s still a top plane for practicing those aerial manoeuvres.

The cockpit of the Robin 2160i - you'll be watching those dials do strange things when you fly upside down!

The cockpit of the Robin 2160i – you’ll be watching those dials do strange things when you fly upside down!

In fact the plane you’ll be flying in is a proper ‘boy racer’ version as it’s got the fuel-injected engine which gives the Robin an impressive cruise speed of 145mph at 11,000ft and a range of 495 miles.

So if you’re looking to have a go at aerobatic flying, why not go for a little ‘je ne sais quoi’ and plump for a 30 minute flight in the Robin 2160i flying out of Norwich airport.

Flying at historic RAF Manston
Gearing up for the 2010 Formula 1 season