What the title says 🙂

I'm curious, because I can't remember the last time I've seen this addon being mentioned in any discussion. Personally Iv;e had it in my hangar for a long time before I finally decided to give it a spin last weekend. I've always been taken aback a little by the lack of autothrottle... Usually I don't have much time to fly, so when I do fly, I want to make it count, which typically means taken out an addon that I know how to use. Thus, I'm pretty much 'stuck' with a PMDG plane or the Aerosoft Airbus. Perhaps the Leonardo Maddog.

But, come quarantine and I actually have extra time on my hands! So finally decided to face my fear and take out the A/T-less Aerosoft CRJ Pro. I gotta say, I can see why people probably criticize it. The lateral navigation indee dis not the most precise in the world, but, for me personally, it doens't matter as much. Overall, I really, really enjoy flying this addon! I'm actually kind of surprised just how much I enjoy flying it. I feel like it strikes a great balance between a number of areas that, for me, are important:

• In terms of systems it's surprisingly simple once you get your hand around the slightly different layout and start to remember the flows (compared to my usual workhorse, the PMDG 737 and Aerosoft A320);
• It's not too simple, thus keeping you on your toes in the best way possible. Never thought I would actually like the lack of A/T! I finally understand the meaning of 'thinking ahead of your aircraft';
• It's a regional jet, thus it has a ton of shorter routes that are perfect for me (and also I don't see myself manually controlling the throttle for over an hour...)
• Another good thing about it being a regional jet, it's plenty fast!

I realize not everybody has a good experience with this plane, but I was surprised to see almost no mention of this addon on these forums. So was just curious who actually flies it and what they think?

 

Personally, I just love it. And the PBR shine on this thing combines VERY well with MegaSceneryEarth! Wonderful flight into KASE the other day 😉 

 

I'm new to P3D (been on FSX and earlier since 1999) and I absolutely love the CRJ-700. It's perfect for me because I enjoy short flights into the airports around where I live. I really like the lack of autothrottle, makes it more challenging. I flew the default CRJ in FSX for a while before finally getting a realistic plane, and wow what a difference.

I bought P3D 4.5 in early April, and then 10 days later 5.0 came out so I got a refund for 4.5. Basically a free upgrade. I'm fortunate the CRJ mostly works on v5, even though Aerosoft doesn't recommend using it on v5, but I just can't wait for the new installers to come out! I mean, I basically bought a gaming laptop mostly to fly the CRJ in P3D...

Besides some occasional CTDs, the only other issue I have in v5 is the cockpit lights for night flying do not work no matter what I do. If anyone has any idea, please let me know. I assume it the lights will work once the new installer is released.

I read somewhere that Aerosoft is only upgrading the CRJ professional for v5. Being I don't have the professional version, I plan to upgrade the second it's released for v5. Hopefully soon! I check daily but there have been no updates for a while.

Edited May 5, 20206 yr by NightOfDreams

It's a good bird in real life too! Have plenty of time on the thing. The lack of auto throttle in the real thing isn't that fun either. It all works though. 

Flying it in P3D v5 with the constant wind shifts is especially no fun without autothrottle. I'll be nice and stable at Mach 0.74, and all of a sudden it's Mach 0.60 or 0.85. 

Glad to see people do use this addon! Though it sounds like there's yet another reason to hold of on v5 😉 

 

20 minutes ago, ahsmatt7 said:

It's a good bird in real life too! Have plenty of time on the thing. The lack of auto throttle in the real thing isn't that fun either. It all works though. 

Oh you're a real life CRJ pilot! Mind if I ask some question?

1. I'm confused about the thrust reverser 'arm' buttons. What is their use, given that you still have thrust reverser levers? I have not once seme them engage by themselves, as those knobs would suggest they should do
2. Braking. First flight I was shocked that there was no autobrake! Second flight I stood on the brakes (can't do anything else, I only have the trigger of my joystick as a brake), and to my surprise they were fine. Not overheated or anything? If I try to do that with any other plane, all bells go off in the cockpit. Are the real CRJ's brakes truly that robust?

14 minutes ago, Benjamin J said:

Glad to see people do use this addon! Though it sounds like there's yet another reason to hold of on v5 😉 

 

Oh you're a real life CRJ pilot! Mind if I ask some question?

1. I'm confused about the thrust reverser 'arm' buttons. What is their use, given that you still have thrust reverser levers? I have not once seme them engage by themselves, as those knobs would suggest they should do
2. Braking. First flight I was shocked that there was no autobrake! Second flight I stood on the brakes (can't do anything else, I only have the trigger of my joystick as a brake), and to my surprise they were fine. Not overheated or anything? If I try to do that with any other plane, all bells go off in the cockpit. Are the real CRJ's brakes truly that robust?

1. You set reversers to OFF after takeoff (you set it to ARM before takeoff and before landing) to prevent accidentally engaging them mid-air.

2. I don't have much experience with real CRJ because I am a flight student and I have only been programming the FMS on the real one and making an engine test so I can't answer the second question. I haven't flown it yet.

Edited May 5, 20206 yr by Branimir

I love this plane at last. Took me a while.

While I've got lot's of aircraft with auto throttles, I gravitate a lot to this one and the Majestic Q400, which also does not have one.

Just seems like more involvement to me.

I had the same experience with the reverse thruster switches, realized they're safety switches and don't automatically engage reverse thrust.

Speed mode was confusing the first flight, after flying nothing but autothrottle planes. 

I, too, last month fly on CRJ Prof

Hand throttl makes you focus. I noticed an inaccurate display of speed on the glide path.

57 minutes ago, Branimir said:

1. You set reversers to OFF after takeoff (you set it to ARM before takeoff and before landing) to prevent accidentally engaging them mid-air.

2. I don't have much experience with real CRJ because I am a flight student and I have only been programming the FMS on the real one and making an engine test. I haven't flown it yet.

1. Aah... I didn't realize that they were just safety switches. I just assumed that 'ARM' means that they would engage automatically (though I had not atcuallyseen that written anyywhere). Thanks for the clarification!

2. That's fine, my original question was to @ahsmatt7 anyway. Let's see what he has to say about the braking action on this plane! Seems like its brakes are incredibly sturdy anyway.

 

Deboarding at KPSP (my bad for forgetting to set the right parking code sin the aircraft's cfg file, hence the inaccurate parking assignment)

 

1 hour ago, Benjamin J said:

Glad to see people do use this addon! Though it sounds like there's yet another reason to hold of on v5 😉 

 

Oh you're a real life CRJ pilot! Mind if I ask some question?

1. I'm confused about the thrust reverser 'arm' buttons. What is their use, given that you still have thrust reverser levers? I have not once seme them engage by themselves, as those knobs would suggest they should do
2. Braking. First flight I was shocked that there was no autobrake! Second flight I stood on the brakes (can't do anything else, I only have the trigger of my joystick as a brake), and to my surprise they were fine. Not overheated or anything? If I try to do that with any other plane, all bells go off in the cockpit. Are the real CRJ's brakes truly that robust?

I fly the CRJ for a living as well. The brakes are usually fine unless really heavy and in hot weather (let's say from about 25C+). The good part is that most runways are plenty long for the newer CRJs. Shortest my company operates into is about 1700m (~5600ft) and it will stop in perhaps slightly over half that distance. Any runway over 2000m you can basically do the initial braking purely on thrust reverse and slowly roll in the wheel braking, again unless really heavy.

The real plane is awesome. I tend to describe it as semi-Next Gen. It has a glass cockpit, lots of automation, but lacks the big stuff like real VNAV and autothrust. The Aerosoft addon I don't really have a lot of love for. The flight dynamics have no bearing on reality up to the point that they wouldn't believe me at some point when I informed them that the service ceiling was higher than they had it modeled (they would not let you select FL410 in the FMS at some point because according to them FL390 was the service ceiling). It is a good looking addon, just not very accurate and IMHO not worth the price they are asking for it. Plus it has a looooooooooong history of being barely flyable because of flawed autopilot logic, making steep turns at FL360, not following flightplans etc. So I think not many people are flying it because the reputation kind of sucks as well.

1 hour ago, Benjamin J said:

Glad to see people do use this addon! Though it sounds like there's yet another reason to hold of on v5 😉 

 

Oh you're a real life CRJ pilot! Mind if I ask some question?

1. I'm confused about the thrust reverser 'arm' buttons. What is their use, given that you still have thrust reverser levers? I have not once seme them engage by themselves, as those knobs would suggest they should do
2. Braking. First flight I was shocked that there was no autobrake! Second flight I stood on the brakes (can't do anything else, I only have the trigger of my joystick as a brake), and to my surprise they were fine. Not overheated or anything? If I try to do that with any other plane, all bells go off in the cockpit. Are the real CRJ's brakes truly that robust?

Glad to answer some questions for you!

 

1. The switched to arm the thrust reversers.....I'm assuming that you mean the two sketches to the immidiate left of the thrust levers? No one knows why the airplane was designed to have thrust reversers that you had to arm. It makes no sense. If you forget to arm them, the physical thrust reverser handled on the thrust reversers will not be be usable. Meaning, when you try to use them, they will be locked until you physically arm the thrust reversers. Also, they are switches you have to physically move your self. They aren't automatic at all on any level.

 

2. The brakes in the real airplane are quite sensitive. You have to get use to using them. When it's been a long time away from the airplane....like for vacations, it never fails, you will launch people forward when first using the brakes on landing...until you get the feel back again. The brakes on the 700 and 900 can overheat really quickly. I am based out of ORD. When we would land on 27R/9L, if we had a lighter airplane and I kept both engines running, I would constantly have to utilize breaks to keep the airplane from getting to fast. That meant the BTMS numbers would be as high as 5s or 6s. A lot for new captains have this problem. Now, I just shut one down or deal with the speed increase to get to the gate faster. 

If you stomped on the brakes in real life, you would heat the brakes up like crazy. 

 

Like the other CRJ pilot said. The brakes are generally not needed at first. Thrust reversers are more than adequate during initial roll out. Newer pilots will smash the brakes and then best them up as a result. Braking is more of an art than a science.....but yeah if you stomp the brakes to the maximum...they will heat up significantly.

 

Hope those were the answers you were looking for!

Edited May 5, 20206 yr by ahsmatt7

I have the airplane.

-I find lots of issues with LNAV.  If, for example, a SID has "fly runway, intercept 180 radial from XYZ VOR," it does not like doing that.  I find the autopilot will just make 360 turns and just not know what to do.  Basically, it cannot "intercept."

-The autopilot could not track the LOC with a solid cross wind (about 20ish KTS.).  When I broke out of the clouds 400 AGL, I was well to the left of the RWY.

-The lack of an autothrottle (cheat) stinks - I asked for one.  We have a little one running around the house so my flights are frequently interrupted.  Without auto flights and cheats I could NEVER fly.  I rely on them for that 5 or 10 mins I need to step away from my computer; a 30 min flight could easily take 4 hours if I have to keep pausing.    

I think the thrust reverser arm switches are a “genetic marker” of the CRJ’s ancestry. The aircraft was developed from the Challenger 600 series business jet. The 600 in turn was derived from a concept aircraft originally designed by Bill Lear of Learjet. Canadair took over the project from Learjet in the 1970s. Learjets of that era, like the 35 and 55 used T/R arm switches.

Edited May 6, 20206 yr by JRBarrett

1 hour ago, Prpn said:

 Plus it has a looooooooooong history of being barely flyable because of flawed autopilot logic, making steep turns at FL360, not following flightplans etc. So I think not many people are flying it because the reputation kind of sucks as well.

Are you referring to the real thing or the simulation? The Digital Design's CRJ700-900 X really does suck but the Pro version fixes most of the things that made its predecessor unflyable. Don't know if the Pro version is still being developed and updated, or whether they've moved on.