What's your take on the default CRJ and any recommended mods for it?
It's not very good. Very little in it works, and there are quite a few switches that were not modelled. Just off the top of my head, the electrical services sub panel on the overhead is missing a number of important things. You wouldn't be able to power the real thing up if those were missing. I've 'flown' the model only a handfull of times, and I really didn't have the feeling I was flying a CRJ at all.
Bone, what exactly did you initially hate about the -120?
I didn't initially hate it, I hated it the whole time I flew it. It was a pain in the butt to fly. It flew like a dump truck with balled tires on ice....heavy on the controls with an unstable longitudinal axis. The story goes that a number of out of work Boeing engineers went down to Brasil and designed this thing for Embraer. It's built like a tank, no doubt, but the systems are ridiculously complex.
The flap system has inboard, mid, and outboard segments for each wing. The inboard segment has three panels that are fowler flap types, the mid segment is a single flap, and the outboard are two sub panels of fowler design. It's a small wing, but has six separate flap panels per wing. When you put the flaps down they come out incrementally and assymetrically. You could watch the flap extension on the overhead panel, because each flap panel had a light. It was a crazy thing to watch. Also, you had to put alot of effort into countering the assymetrey of the flap extension. The right side would extend a little, then the left side would extend a little, then the right side, then the left side, and on and on until they were down. Ridiculous. You had to constantly do a left-right-left-right-back-forward-left right-back forward with the controls. The complexity of the flap system caused failures all of the time. I've done more zero flap landings in the Brasilia than I can remember, and everyone I know who flew the Brasilia has had more zero flap landings than they can remember.
The hydraulic system had a 'blue' side and a 'green' side, and although they were separate systems, for some reason they connected up with each other in the park/emerg brake line. If you didn't put 200 pounds of pressure on the toe brakes before you set the park/emerg brake, then 'blue' fluid would purge into the 'green' system. It was the same type of hydraulic fluid, so it wasn't a problem with mixing fluids. But, the problem was that most people wouldn't push hard enough and the blue system was always going empty, and the green system was always too full. You couldn't call a mechanic everytime this happened, because it happened all the time, and at places where there weren't any mechanics. You'd get to the airport from the layover hotel and find a plane with low blue and overfull green. We had a system for reversing the flow from green side to blue side, and it could be done from the cockpit, but you had to have the engines running and it involved manipulating the toe brakes and park/emerg brakes...it was a pain.
The pressurization system is another example. There were multiple steps in setting it, and you had to set it for take-off, set it again for cruise over FL180, and set it again for the descent. If you were cruising below FL180, you had to set the barometric pressure on it everytime there was an altimeter barometric change.
These are just a FEW of the pain in the butt things. It probably doesn't sound like much to you, but keep in mind it's just a few out many many things that you need to keep on top of continuosly. They add up. Every system on the plane was overdone, and needed too much manual input.
And, then there was the the reduction gear box that was always having a problem because of excessive aircraft vibration, sometimes even causing the prop to go into beta during flight...NOT PRETTY.
Oh, and the seat. The seat was a medieval torture contraption, and seemed to conspire with the excessive vibration of the plane. Those who flew the Brasilia long term had back problems. It gave me a back problem. Our pilot union contract even had a provision in it for Brasilia pilots. If you were on the Brasilia, you got ten free Chiropractic visits a year.
Oh, and then there was the .....
