I've been away

[Guest tcable]

Call it a 'furlough' :)I've been flying the E Jet for a while, but I'm now able to 're bid' the Queen (and soon the MD11). Not for technical reasons, but when I introduce a new aircraft to the hanger, I devote time just to her for a while.The E jet is a fine bird no doubt. Excellent in her mission. Great trip costs too.But I miss the god 'ol Smiths CDU. The flows are so much better for a design that stems from the 70's (strangely the decade of my birth as well!)The Primus Epic on the E jet just feels klugy, and like it well, lacks flow altogether. I'm used to keying in the FPL and I'm ok with keying in the trip (though I admit to using my ACARS lite in fsbuild- at least for the FPL)but adding DP and STARS takes you out of the flow completely. Clearly the Honeywell engineers that designed the MD11 and or Airbus MCDU (MCDU or whatever it's called :)) did not work on the Primus series.I'm happy to be back flying the big iron. Now if only the trip costs on short routes were better!Tim

[Gavin 99]

>>>I'm happy to be back flying the big iron. Now if only the trip>costs on short routes were better!>>Tim Good thing that fuel is free in FS ;-)

[onurksn 1]

>Good thing that fuel is free in FS ;-)That definitely suits me too since I only fly short routes.As for the FMC, a new system, FMC or MCDU is going to be hard to get used to after hours of flight with the Smiths. Especially in those situations where 50NM out FS ATIS surprises you with a different runway. That said, I'm really looking forward to the MD-11 and of course hopefully a real Airbus.I remember how complicated the Smiths FMC was for me when I started flying my 737. After a while and a lot of reading now I can do things pretty fast. I am sure it will be similar with a new system.

[Allan Burek 3]

I spent 7 weeks in training for the E-190, and 2 weeks for the Primus/Epic system. On paper its a great FMS, but now we are up to software revision 24 over 2 years and theres still plenty of work to be done.

[Guest tcable]

There's no doubt about the fact that it's a great system. It just feels like a step back from a system like Boeing or Airbus that was designed from the ground up from the beginning- the Primus is really a GNS with some bells and whistles added. However the perk is that almost all of the RJ types use a variation of Primus as their suite. It's just that almost all of them lack a vertical nav mode, usually just pitch for speed.Tim

[Allan Burek 3]

It is GNS, however it cant really be used without IRS, as in the case of the E170-E190. Very similar to the MD-11, where the newer aircraft updated with GPS use "G/I NAV" for more accuracy.

[Guest tcable]

My personal experience is with a coupled GNS430 in a C172 so take that for what it's worth!My longest flight IRL was DAB_PBI-FMY-SFB-DAB, but lots of shorter stuff.Heck I even survived Airspace reclassification.