SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Review: Jet or Turboprop? Part I

Fortunately the Flight Sim community stepped in to help and I found two resources on the feelThere web site that I feel are invaluable additions and essential to deriving the most from this product. The first is an absolutely incredible tutorial document that will take you through an entire flight to help you familiarize yourself with the operation of the ERJ. Written by David Maler, the walk-through is an outstanding piece of work and is presented in a nice, easy to follow format.

The installation is no problem although you will probably want to visit the company web site to download additional liveries since the default paint job is a bit unusual. There is a setup option that allows you to set your preferences for various items including units of measure (lbs. or kgs.), pressures, graphics configurations and other features. I was particularly pleased to see they offered the option for V-bars or the standard cross-type of flight director since I greatly prefer the V-bars to the older type.

ERJ

For our review flight today I chose a typical stage length that you might find a regional jet flying in the United States, a 420 nautical mile hop from Portland, Maine (KPWM) down the northeast corridor to Washington National airport (KDCA) outside of Washington, D.C.

Climbing into the cockpit in Portland I’m greeted with a cold and dark cockpit. The three large glass displays are the first indication that the ERJ is a modern cockpit design, clean and definitely cutting edge.

The overhead panel contains most of the systems controls including the APU, engine start, anti-ice, electrical, environmental, lighting, and various other systems. Use of the checklist is essential to the proper operation and settings of the systems. I can’t recommend enough David Maler’s excellent tutorial for your first couple of flight in the ERJ-145.

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