Hi all,

 

I´m a commercial pilot and soon starting a type rating on the CRJ 900. I was thinking of getting the Aerosoft CRJ to supplement the books and see how everything works before I actually enter the real sim.. But should I get P3d V3 or V4? I just want smooth operation with no crashes. 🙂

My specs are:

Intel Core i7-8750H

GTX1060 6GB

16 GB DDR4 RAM

Windows 10

 

Please note it is a laptop so it does get hot under heavy load.

 

Cheers

A no brainer: V4.

8 minutes ago, Akbas12 said:

Hi all,

 

I´m a commercial pilot and soon starting a type rating on the CRJ 900. I was thinking of getting the Aerosoft CRJ to supplement the books and see how everything works before I actually enter the real sim.. But should I get P3d V3 or V4? I just want smooth operation with no crashes. 🙂

My specs are:

Intel Core i7-8750H

GTX1060 6GB

16 GB DDR4 RAM

Windows 10

 

Please note it is a laptop so it does get hot under heavy load.

 

Cheers

Any new development for Add-on's is happening for V4.

Regards,
Simbol

Thanks guys!

I believe that the CRJ 900 was developed for P3DV4.3

John

V4 runs great on my laptop, so I'd recommend that, as well as because it is the current version too.

With regard to using the Aerosoft CRJ, I'm sure you are aware that learning stuff from a PC-based sim is okay for some familiarisation, but it's not gonna do everything the real one will do. Not that most flight simmers worry about this aspect too much, but here are some differences for procedures on the ramp as well and since CRJ's tend to do turnaround spins in 25 minutes; this is certainly the case when we service the SAS ones at Manchester, it's helpful if everyone knows what they are doing when on that kind of timetable, as being in a rush is a recipe for f*** ups if one is not careful.

Obviously it's the case to follow your own airline's procedures, but with regard to some of the different stuff if you've been used to Boeings or Airbuses, CRJ's have a different system for pushback from either a Boeing or an Airbus because it was essentially developed from a private jet design where the crews tend to be a bit more often down on the ramp than they typically are when doing airline flights; there's no physical bypass pin, instead the CRJ uses a switch in an access panel under the nose, in concert a switch one in the cockpit which disables the hydraulics rather than a pin (this varies on some models), so there is specific a procedure between the ground crew and the flight deck for when attaching the bar, thus make sure you know all the hand signals for connecting stuff and doing the push in case the headsets go U/S or if there's a thunderstorm, because many airports won't let the rampies use a headset if there is a thunderstorm. Because of this, if you are doing international flights between the US and other countries, note that the hand signals differ outside the US for connecting the bar, the signal is to clamp your forearm with your other hand when in the US, but the signal is to link the fingers of both hands in most European countries.

The towbar used on the CRJ is unusual too; it doesn't have a lock retaining pin, it has two spring loaded clips instead and it connects to the nosewheel axle either side of the wheel rather than to a lug on the main gear leg. So you won't be hearing any 'pins inserted' calls from the start master when pushing back, cos there ain't any pins to insert lol. This also means that when you get the wave off after the bar has been disconnected, you need to make sure they've done the switch (and told you so) unless you want to be taxying without turning lol. the procedures still call for them to use a remove before flight tag on the switch in most places though, so it's not that big a deal.

Note too that although the CRJ doesn't have a fancy autothrottle like there is on 737s and A320s etc, some airlines have fitted an after market one. This is fairly common on European-based ones, but not every airline wants to spend the cash. The Aerosoft CRJ doesn't model an autothrottle and is fairly authentic in that, but the Virtualcol one does, so despite its simplicity in comparison to the Aerosoft one, the Virtualcol one could well be more akin to your airline's procedures for descents if your airline does operate CRJ's with an autothrottle fitted, and it's cheap enough to pick that one up as well if this should be the case. 

CRJs rarely use air bridges either, usually they use the airstairs right near the cockpit, so it can get busy up the front end when boarding and disembarking passengers, because the pax also tend to collect any bags on the ramp at the foot of the airstairs if those bags have come from the two small baggage holds forward of the wing, only the stuff from the rear hold goes onto curtain trailers and then to the carousels, so for passenger safety, you have to make sure the rampies either cone off the thing or use a barrier tape for all the normal reasons but also because you don't want some passenger touching the pitot heads and burning themselves, they are located low enough down on the nose of the CRJ for people to walk into them and as you probably know, the pitot heads are really flipping hot when the pitot heat is on, so you might want to consider checking you've turned it off when on the deck, although obviously you'd need to make sure it was on your flows to turn the thing back on when you've pushed back lol.

Also, if you are the first officer, you will probably get the walkaround duties. If that's the case, pay particular attention to the engine nacelles on that walkaround and look for any scratches or dents on the port engine nacelle (especially underneath it on the bottom of the cowling), also look for long black marks from a rubber scrape, because it is easy for some careless ramp agent to clang a baggage belt into that engine if they forget to retract the extendable safety rail 'trombones' on the belt when driving up to the rear hold door and if they don't report it, then it's your job to spot it if you are doing the walkaround lol. It would also be possible for some cargo or a bag to clang into the engine nacelle if someone was really careless when loading the thing, which is why it's always worth more than a quick look at that port engine. The cargo door is very near the engine and the belt actually goes so close to the port nacelle that you have duck down on the belt to be able crawl under the engine when getting in that hold. You'll see what I mean if you watch one being loaded or unloaded.

Edited September 6, 20187 yr by Chock

V4 all the way

If I was flying the Aerosoft CRJ, the answer is easy; the latest version is only compatible with Lockheed Martin Prepar3D V4.3 or higher!

In my case with the texture anomalies in 4.3 (see separate thread that I started) and the ATC problems in 4.2, I have gone back to 3.4

On my system v3 has better Anti-Aliasing, less shimmering and doesn't have the annoying autogen popping that v4 has!

V4.3 without a doubt ... I have not ran into any texture anomalies or ATC issues in V4.3.  V4.x also has native support SSAA which is a higher quality AA, V3.x only support MSAA which is a lower quality AA.

Cheers, Rob.

Yes, V4.3 is the way to go.  If LM follows their typical release schedule, you may want to do the math just to see if it is cheaper to license it on a month to month basis until V5.0 comes out, or buy it outright.  Life is short though; just go get it.  Every time I agonize about buying something my girlfriend calls it "Mental M*asturbation".   I hate it when she says that because there isn't any real fun in stressing out about making a wise purchasing decision!

Mark

 

Thank you to everyone for your advice!