Is the Aerosoft CRJ worth buying in its current state? I'm considering either getting it or putting the money towards the FSL A320. What would you do?

8 minutes ago, Milton Waddams said:

Is the Aerosoft CRJ worth buying in its current state? I'm considering either getting it or putting the money towards the FSL A320. What would you do?

It's un-flyable right now. The Nav it's a worse disaster than Puerto Rico after the hurricanes

Just now, Mitch24 said:

It's un-flyable right now. The Nav it's a worse disaster than Puerto Rico after the hurricanes

Is it really that bad? I've heard it's bug ridden but dang.

Actually a little surprised to hear that. I haven't flown it for quite a while - but unflyable?! That sounds a little extreme...?

After flying with it tons of wasted flights only to have the aircraft go off in its own direction, i've officially uninstalled it. 

I've found it to be okay. I'm aware it does have a couple of issues, but I would not say it was unflyable unless one is completely reliant on the automation to do everything and one needs all of the nav avionics working flawlessly. Since I tend to like driving the things myself, I'm never too worried about something not working in the virtual cockpit; I just shrug and then regard it as 'my job' to grab the controls and start doing what I'd be paid for if it was a real aeroplane. Hell, if it only had a whiskey compass and the window opened so I could stick my elbow out and guess the airspeed, I'd probably give it a shot, which is probably because my real flying experience is all basic stick and rudder stuff in aeroplanes where if they have a fully working radio, its the height of high tech lol.

Interestingly, because of some of the issues people had mentioned, I actually looked up on the Master MEL for the real aeroplane, what system faults a real CRJ can still be allowed to fly with on commercial flights, and it's really quite a lot of things which can be busted and they will not prevent it from setting off on revenue flights, so I figured, what the hell, it's still realistic at the moment anyway lol. Personally, I think a lot of the 'problems' people have with saying it is unflyable are because they are too used to having an autothrottle and VNAV do half the work for them like it does in the 737.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll all get fixed.

In the interim, if you want a jump in and go CRJ, there is also the simpler Virtualcol one, which is cheap and cheerful and whilst hardly a study sim, it works and is great for frame rates because of its simplicity. You get the 200, 700, 900 and 1000 CRJ variants, and it has more paint jobs than you could shake a stick at, which is not bad considering it is currently on sale too, for just 15 quid. Have a good look at the VC screenshots before buying it though, just to be sure you could live with it.

I only have minor issues with the plane and really enjoy it. In particular, I have never encountered any issue with FMC and autopilot. It does exactly what it should do on my system. Keep in mind that 

- like the real CRJ, it does not have auto-throttle. To keep the plane running at the right cruise speed, I usually have 81-82% power set.

- like the real CRJ, the navigational system has only an advisory VNAV system. That means, it will show you if you are on the right track or not, but it will not correct the path.

Peter

For me the big turnoffs is the frames/smoothness and the circa 2009 virtual cockpit.  It feels really dated (especially in P3dV4) as compared to more recent birds like TFDi, etc.  Oh, and yah, it has a bunch of bugs as described above but nothing to make it unflyable as long as you're ready to grab the yoke from Otto.   

Get the FSL A320. Its even better then the PMDG aircraft ( IMO ). I've been a PMDG customer near 20 years and purchased everything so I don't say that lightly. The FSL A320 should be available for P3Dv4 fairly soon.

I agree with Pete, not to disrespect PMDG or any other developers, but FSL is in a league of their own IMO (the flight model is incredibly realistic, sound is making you feel like you are in the cockpit and you can hear the appropriate relays, pumps based on current config.. the list goes on.) I am not rated on the 320 but have over 15K hours flying, and spent many many hours jumpseating the bus during the lovely commute to my hub... get the FSL A320 you won't be disappointed!

Yup, the FSL A320 is undeniably the king of the hill if you want realism. It is in a class of its own in every respect, from the modeling to the texturing, the systems simulation, the audio etc. It's pricey, but you do get what you pay for, and remember, it's actually two aeroplanes, since you get the choice of engines.

I agree that it's virtually unflyable right now. As others have said, the navigation is a mess and it seems to be hard on FPS.

I am reading lot of hit or miss with Aerosoft CRJ.  From what I can tell and based on previous history with their releases.  You need to give it some time till the patch cycle has matured just a bit.

They have patches like almost every few weeks.  The upkeep alone will drive me nuts.  I did enjoy the hype on their gigantic crj preview thread (aerosoft forums - it got like gzillion views).

 

I've tested the latest version 1.0.1.1 at a friend's house and it's completely unreliable. It will not follow the route correctly and sometimes (rarely) crashes for no apparent reason. My money is on TFDI's B717 and almost for sure on the upcoming MadDog for P3DV4.

Aerosoft CRJ worth it? NO!