Not that CRJ

[BeachAV8R]

So with all the buzz about the Aerosoft CRJ being released for MSFS - I wanted to take a (very) quick look at the very old JRollon CRJ-200 for X-Plane. I think it was released almost 10 years ago for X-Plane 10 and updated for X-Plane 11…though really it was mostly a compatibility update moreso than polishing it up.

As such - this plane is pretty old…so might be a bargain purchase for a CRJ “experience”…but don’t think you are getting every bell and whistle!

Mostly I wanted to fire it up to test my memory about the size of the displays and the deep-set instrument panel that I recalled the plane having. @fearlessfrog had brought that up as one possible concern with the Aerosoft/MSFS version for those of us in VR - the font, size, and distance of the MFDs is pretty substantial. I don’t own the Aerosoft one yet, so this has nothing to do with that.

3D model is still pretty good!

Yup - just as I remember it - a deep and dark instrument panel, small displays, but the font wasn’t quite as small as I thought it was. And, with the HP Reverb G2 - I found it fairly well readable.

Taxiing out of Flagstaf…

I did a full startup using just my Reverb controls and it worked well with all of the buttons and knobs responding to the controllers as one would expect. The sounds on this plane are superb…from the engines to the fans to the clanking and clatter of coffee pot and galley stuff as you are rolling down the runway (or is it the lav falling apart…did the -200 have a galley?)…

Flight performance is good and fun - with flaps out the 200 (as modeled by JRollon anyway) is a bit of a dog…particularly at the high altitude of Flagstaff. Trim speed seems a bit slow, but makes you stay ahead of the plane. The drone of the engines seems well modeled. I wagged speeds and flew around the pattern at 160 and the final approach at 140 and all seemed well - even showing that characteristic CRJ nose down pitch attitude on the final that so many of us old school pilots find disconcerting…

Cockpit 3D modeling is good…probably looks a bit better in these pics than it does in-game. The CRTs have a bit too much convexity to them…but they look fine unless you peek at them at high angles close to the instrument panel…

The panel lettering is a bit hard to read - simply because the cockpit lettering textures are not very high resolution. I’ll have to check around to see if there is a high resolution mod… Great looking aircraft at night though.

So there you have it…your NOT Aerosoft CRJ for MSFS mini-revival-review…(in VR!)

Available HERE

…and this might be what I’m looking for:

EDIT - actually this other texture file is way better and clearer…

CRJ200 Cockpit Textures

[NEVO]

thx for the mini review.

this is from their requirements tab on xp store :

Current Version: 1.71 (last updated April 3rd 2017)

but still, I just cant throw money on a module which was not touched by the developer for that long time period.
Even small assurance from the dev will go long way. Something small like this will be really enough: “2020: tested for XP11.50, all works OK”.

[BeachAV8R]

Yeah…I would in no way encourage anyone to buy this at full price. A 50% off sale price tag seems reasonable - and even at that price I’d do a deep dive on the .ORG forums to make sure all is well with the plane. I already had it in my inventory from long ago…

[BeachAV8R]

Oh yeah…forgot about the cargo mod for it too:

[fearlessfrog]

Nice, do you think you’ll get the Aerosoft MSFS one? I’m sort of waiting for the first patch as still besotted by the Dogbus.

The lack of controllers in MSFS is meant to be being changed, but you have to wonder if it it’ll work as nicely as XP11. Quite a big omission really, but still glad we got something in VR anyway (when before launch it wasn’t even on the plan - eek).

[BeachAV8R]

@fearlessfrog

Nice, do you think you’ll get the Aerosoft MSFS one?

I don’t think so. The plane just doesn’t really do it for me - not specifically the Aerosoft one…just the CRJ in itself. I know that is a bit of heresy…but I like the Embraer 135/140/145 series better from an aesthetic point of view. I don’t know if they are dogs compared to the CRJ…or how pilots feel about them…I just like them.

I haven’t even yet fully explored the FBW A320…so that can scratch my electronics and button pushing itch for now…

Oh…and full disclosure…the Primus 1000 of the EMB planes is what I fly in real life…so that is where that tilt goes. And I like the shape of the ERJ-135…looks like a big Lear…

[PaulRix]

I remember picking up the JRollon CRJ 200 back in 2011 so that I could start learning a bit about the Challenger 604, which is pretty much the same aircraft systems wise. It certainly gave me a head start when I went for my type training a few months later.

[Victork2]

I love the shape of the Nose and cockpit area on Bombardier planes. Those graceful leading edge lines are very pretty as well. (The mini VC10 look is pretty sexy)

[smokinhole]

@BeachAV8R

I know that is a bit of heresy…but I like the Embraer 135/140/145 series better from an aesthetic point of view. I don’t know if they are dogs compared to the CRJ…or how pilots feel about them…I just like them.

I didn’t fly the CRJ. But the 135/145/XR were all terrific from a pure flying perspective. The 145 was underpowered. That was corrected with the XR but it still was a struggle to plan below landing weight and still have enough fuel for a distant alternate. Jumpseating pilots who fly “real” airliners could never understand why we’d be weight-restricted on a flight from Houston to nearby College Station when the weather was crap. I asked people who flew both the ERJ and CRJ and there seemed to be a slight preference for the later.

[BeachAV8R]

I saw an Embraer Praetor for the first time up at Northeast Philly (PNE) a couple of months ago…the first time I had ever seen one. It rolled up on the ramp and I was having trouble putting my finger on the type until it got close enough for me to read the fuselage markings. The paint scheme on it really made it look fantastic. Didn’t know much about them but apparently they are FBW…

[BeachAV8R]

@fearlessfrog

The lack of controllers in MSFS is meant to be being changed, but you have to wonder if it it’ll work as nicely as XP11.

If you haven’t tried the hand controllers with the Zibo 737 - it really is a wonderful experience. The switch movements and rheostat speeds seem really well calibrated. Very enjoyable.

[fearlessfrog]

Of course - I love it and would often do a quick flight with them just because I was too lazy to move a HOTAS set about 2 feet. It’s amazing how any trivial thing will stop me from playing something. There needs to be a really long German word that describes that feeling, specifically for game controllers.

[Victork2]

@fearlessfrog

There needs to be a really long German word that describes that feeling, specifically for game controllers

Spielzeit Lethargie-Syndrom

[fearlessfrog]

Seems too short and spacey.

I like Betäubungsmittelverschreibungsverordnung which (cut/pasted in, my German is awful) ‘regulation requiring a prescription for an anesthetic’. As Mark Twain once said, “Some German words are so long that they have a perspective.”. My guess would be these words are sort of fun spectacles rather than super useful, a bit like long Welsh train station names.

So maybe a translation for ‘the feeling of something being a little too far away to bother grabbing when a poor alternative is a little closer and good enough for now’.

[miRage]

We simply call this Faulheit

[fearlessfrog]

That works, but I was going for a specific VR controller laziness, to lengthen it a bit more. Something like

vrhandperipheriefaulheitzögern

…(if that’s the way around the joining goes, I’m unlimited in ignorance in terms of Germanic grammar rules).

[BeachAV8R]

That would be a winning Scrabble lay down…not sure if the board is wide enough though…

[miRage]

@fearlessfrog

vrhandperipheriefaulheitzögern

These monster composite nouns are not to common. 2 or 3 nouns is quite usual. The art lies in not making it redundant or trying to tell a whole story

Maybe try:
Spielsteuerungsgerätebewegungsaversion

You wouldn’t find it in a dictionary so I would challenge you if you put this on a scrabble board.

[schurem]

German is an awesome language because it’s logical grammar. In a sense Hochdeutsch is a constructed language and it shows. In college I read some Kant and plucking apart sentences that could run for the better part of a page while being coherent, logical and in sometimes even beautiful was… something else.

Spielsteuerunsgerätenbewegungsaversionsgelenkteinferioritätsacceptanz perhaps?