I love a study level sim aircraft, even if these days I am less of a study level studier.
As a retired pilot from the airlines I thought I would try to step into something really different. Well, this aircraft is certainly challenging. I had to watch a lot of videos on YouTube just to get it set up and running. It was challenging just to get it into the air, and I was (and still am) often frustrated.
Now, after a couple of months of trying to learn it, I find it is still a struggle, absent formal training. I find that I much enjoy messing with it, and takeoffs and landings are not terribly difficult. It can be really fun to take around the sky and into smaller airports.
What do I not like? That's easy to answer at my untrained level. The ATS, auto-throttle system seems quite clunky and unintuitive. If you get the steps right to arm it up, it usually works without issues. If it should unexpectedly fail on you? Good luck getting it re-engaged. Here, they really need to put in a system more like an airliner. In the mainline jets, the A/T is just a little paddle switch, arm it and forget about it, it works perfectly every time. Not so in the Challenger.
The other system I really struggle with is the VNAV. Again, without the formal training, VNAV seems like an afterthought in the Challenger. It would rather fly around using the older, less precision V/S inputs. When I have a STAR in the FMS with lots of crossing restrictions, I never am quite sure what the 650 in VNAV will do. Sometimes it figures a TOD point that is a couple of hundred miles from the first step down. What is it thinking? Other times, with no discontinuities (all the dots connected) to the runway, it will make the first restriction, perhaps even the second one, and then just sign off. I have to come in with V/S to try to salvage the arrival. Does the real airplane do this?? Hard to imagine that being the case. For me at present, the Challenger VNAV has all the sophistication of a 90s era turboprop. The 737 VNAV makes every crossing restriction, every time. You don't even have to pay much attention to it. Both jets may require some speed brake.
Hopefully I will eventually get the hang of this cute and interesting airplane.