All about the CRJ

[MarineGrunt]

Let's hear your tips/techniques/tricks to everyday flying on the CRJ200/700/900. While we're at it, include any common emergencies, flaws, or "interesting" experience. Anything from pitch and power settings to smoke in the cockpit.

At the risk of looking like a lame topic, I think it would be very valuable to have an educational thread, since we have a lot of low time new hires out there - plus, I am due to arrive home from an overseas deployment (flying a different aircraft) and I'd like to brush up on some stuff other than the books...

Fly safe!

 

[flyboyike]

The biggest challenge for me was getting used to the lawn dart approach profile, which, in my experience is, 2.5 deg nose down, 62-67% N1 and hold on to it until GPWS calls "twenty", then gently pull up to 1-1.5 deg nose up. Hold that until it settles.

 

[MarineGrunt]

^^^Yep! Been flying a heavy for the past few months and I'm going to have to really concentrate on that part! My best landings ("best" is all relative ) are the ones that I try to "pancake" as much as possible.

 

[BoilerUP]

The -200 lands better with a ten knot crosswind, IMO.

 

[bizzum]

* DING * EFIS COMP MON (and repeat every time you turn)

 

[n757st]

The biggest challenge for me was getting used to the lawn dart approach profile, which, in my experience is, 2.5 deg nose down, 62-67% N1 and hold on to it until GPWS calls "twenty", then gently pull up to 1-1.5 deg nose up. Hold that until it settles.

I am one of those reduce at 100 and idle by 50' starting to flare at 50. Will usually put it on the marks and will grease on... especially if you side load it a bit.

 

[flyboyike]

I am one of those reduce at 100 and idle by 50' starting to flare at 50. Will usually put it on the marks and will grease on... especially if you side load it a bit.

Hmmm....might be worth a shot.

 

[TOOL CRIB]

Be at VRef or slightly less over the runway at 100'. You'll actually land in the touchdown zone.

 

[EatinRamen]

I second that. It lands way better with a x-wind.

 

[Willy21]

Interesting Experience

FL370 over PUB, AC bus 1 failure, followed by AC esential bus failure. I know we are all told that when AC bus 1 is not powering the AC esentail bus auto transfer will allow AC bus 2 to power the AC esential bus. Didn't happen. The only thing we had was AC bus 2 and DC power from the tru on AC bus 2. Mx told us this was not possible, pic pulls out the cell phone and snaps a few photos of the electrics pages. There response was, "how did you do that?" To this day I have not been told why this happened.

 

[crashpad]

Marinegrunt-Thank you for your service to our country.
Your biggest challange in the RJ will be:
If your in the right seat...taking orders from a 20-something year old kid while he puts everyone else at risk.
If your in the left seat...keeping an eye on that same kid because he's constantly pulling out the FOM to question your every decision.

 

[Carl_Spackler]

1n8
2n8
4a2
4a3

 

[FmrFreightDog]

1n8
2n8
4a2
4a3

Knowing that one will save several calls to Mx.

 

[Spinplate]

just reboot

 

[BLing]

I am one of those reduce at 100 and idle by 50' starting to flare at 50. Will usually put it on the marks and will grease on... especially if you side load it a bit.

I do the same in the 200 and it works great.

In the 700 I keep approach power untill 30 ft, then go idle and give it a nice flare which allows it to roll on nice without using to much runway. Ive done my fair share of experimenting with landing the 700 and this works best for me. I have also seen guys pull the power at 50 ft and it usually works great. I have personally tried this and made it work sometimes!

 

[ArcticFlier]

1f4
2f4

 

[Hovernut]

FF around 1400/side or so with adjustments for wind, instead of watching N1 for approach power will usually keep you on profile.

I agree with the thrust levers slowly closing from 100' to 50' with greasers more often than not.

Just before touchdown, bump the thrust levers off the stops to keep GLDs from robbing you from a true greaser. Once you're down, pull 'em back to the stops for GLD deployment. Used usually on dry, long runways.

Don't slam TRs closed @70KTS, bring 'em to idle (<30%) 'till turning off to prevent the 70KT 'kick.' CAs, let your FOs slow the airplane, and maybe even let them turn off the high-speed. Don't be so eager to take the brakes at 70!

Add FFs for target IAS in level flight. Usually pretty close.

1900FPM down in VS Mode @10000' will usually keep you @250KIAS

If you have to make a crossing AND, say 250 KIAS while descending at 320, target yourself to level 6NM prior to the fix and the CRJ will have slowed to 250 by the crossing...at flight idle, of course. If it's summer and the cabin is warm, start your descent a little further out, keep it a little shallower and keep the N2s up enough to keep the air flowing in the back!

Double-pushing the PERF key on the FMS will take you to the page to enable vertical nav guidance, rather than pushing PERF, then the perf init LS key.

FOs, after landing punch in the last 2 digits from the hobbs into the FMS scratchpad so the CA doesn't have to lean over to get it while your on your walk-around.

 

[nethan]

1f4
2f4

I don't have that one written down. What wondrous CASS message does that dump?

 

[ArcticFlier]

I don't have that one written down. What wondrous CASS message does that dump?

If my rusty thing I call a brain serves me, it will reset the flap controllers when you get that nasty flap fail message. 1f4 is for the ch 1 controller and 2f4 is for the ch 2 controller. Each is powered by its respective DC Bus.

 

[BigLebowski]

landing the 200, my technique is at the 100 foot call start slowly pulling the power back, and at 50 pull out the rest. Start to round out just after the 20 call and let it settle. "Grease" it everytime.

the 700...whole new subject. At 50 feet I start to pull the power and at 30 I go to flight idle and start the flare, (about 1.5 degree nose up from the approach path). Seems to work like a charm.

 

[blesko]

Adding the FF's at cruise nails the airspeed issue..e.g 280 kts, 1400 lbs/side.

Take your landing weight speed card drop the last 3 zeros and add 20, that will be an approx N1 setting (47000 ---> 47 + 20 to get 67% N1 fully configired at the marker.

Going to pitch mode before adding flaps or pulling one notch of spoilers helps that pitch ballooning from the flaps deploying

Disconnnecting the a/p by using the trim makes the disconnect sometimes smoother

 

[dojetdriver]

Marinegrunt-Thank you for your service to our country.
Your biggest challange in the RJ will be:
If your in the right seat...taking orders from a 20-something year old kid while he puts everyone else at risk.
If your in the left seat...keeping an eye on that same kid because he's constantly pulling out the FOM to question your every decision.

You forgot to add trying to get by on the crappy pay check.

 

[Hovernut]

Going to pitch mode before adding flaps or pulling one notch of spoilers helps that pitch ballooning from the flaps deploying

Disconnnecting the a/p by using the trim makes the disconnect sometimes smoother

Ditto! I thought the A/P disconnect via trim was so second-nature, I didn't even think to mention it...it's been the only way I've seen people here do it for some time.

Saw the flaps/pitch mode thing a while ago and was impressed to see how it calmed down the ole' broad when dirtying her up.

Going along with keeping the ride out of the "E" ticket range, if she begins to buck in a high-speed descent, engage turbulence mode to dampen out the oscillations.

Now if we can just get it to stop the altitude oscillations on the GS without having to punch out and go manual, that would be nice!

 

[i fly boxes]

We were at 30000 in the 200 and I was looking at the flight controls page, and then all of a sudden it shows that the left hand flaps are at 5 degrees and the right are at zero. This was followed by 3 caution messages that would have been related if this were a real scenario, plus the high speed and low speed tapes met in the middle at the speed i was flying. There was no rolling of the wings at all and 5 minutes later it all disapeared.

 

[CitationLover]

Going to pitch mode before adding flaps or pulling one notch of spoilers helps that pitch ballooning from the flaps deploying

Disconnnecting the a/p by using the trim makes the disconnect sometimes smoother

waiting till Vmm will not balloon either. you are simply fast and thus the ballooning.

 

[Spinplate]

Ditto! I thought the A/P disconnect via trim was so second-nature, I didn't even think to mention it...it's been the only way I've seen people here do it for some time.

Saw the flaps/pitch mode thing a while ago and was impressed to see how it calmed down the ole' broad when dirtying her up.

Going along with keeping the ride out of the "E" ticket range, if she begins to buck in a high-speed descent, engage turbulence mode to dampen out the oscillations.

Now if we can just get it to stop the altitude oscillations on the GS without having to punch out and go manual, that would be nice!

Doesnt the turbulence button just shorten up the bank angle on turns?
(Its been over a year since Ive flown the RJ)

 

[nethan]

No, the TURB button is the turbo boost button. It makes the plane actually climb above 15,000.

I think it just slows the response time to correct the FD. As if the FD isn't slow enough already. TURB does do a nice job with damping out some of the oscillations when climbing in speed mode though. It's a shame you can't use it when on the glideslope.

 

[bustinmins]

Flight idle, 2000 Down VSI = 250 knots.
Flight idle, 1500 Down VSI = 210 knots.

Don't expect any climb performance above FL220. You'll be lucky to get 700 FPM in the CRJ200. The CRJ's 700/900 are really nice flying birds. They will climb 1000 FPM at .80 above FL330. Great fun!!!

You can get about 9000 FPM down in an emergency descent profile....so have fun on your empty legs!!!

 

[bertengineer]

What is the circle around the Alt Static Port mean?
WHat does the circle around the Stby Pitot Probe and TAT mean?

These are the only ones that have the red or white painted circle around them.

What is Potasium Superoxide? Do we have it on the CRJ? If so, how long is it good for?

What the heck is ADSHC?

Fun Stuff!

 

[DiverDriver]

-200 Stuff.

On approach, whatever N2 setting kept 250 knots at about 10,000 feet will also keep your Ref+5. About 80-82% in the winter and 84-85% in the summer at heavy landing weights.

900 PPH will maintain 200 knots in level flight flaps zero OR 8.

Your fuel flow rate is higher at 10K doing 320 knots than low flaps 20, gear down. Remember this if you need to burn gas before arriving.

In smooth air pulling the power to idle at 100 feet above the touchdown height will put the mains in the TD blocks just about every time.

Speed mode DOES work in climb. Just turn on TURB and keep the N1s in the carrots religiously and you won't have oscillations in smooth air. If it pitches down then it's doing it's job which you would have had to do anyway to stay on profile using VS mode.

1,800 FPM down at idle = 250 knots
Need to slow to 250 by 10K with continued descent to lower altitude with no crossing restriction? AT 12K use 1200 FPM and idle. It will slow to 250 before reaching 10k.

You do not have to go direct to a fix in order to put in a crossing distance if there are waypoints between the crossing and the crossing reference point. Say they give you cross 30 prior to XYZ but BUBBA is less than 30 to XYZ. If you try to go XYZ/-30 it will give you "distance too large". Just go to FIX page. Enter XYZ. Enter 30 mile ring. It will show a little circle where it crosses your path. RESELECT XYZ at the top of the fix page. It will now give you a crossing point that you can enter in the FMS LEGS page and enter your crossing altitude. Works great when you have a dogleg in the route before the reference fix. I always hear people asking for direct after getting a clearnace like that and I just grin. It's not necessary.

Check your climb charts before going high to see if you can reasonably make it. Even if the chart says you can don't climb at less than profile speed. Just say unable and take a lower altitude. If the bottom red raster is coming at you fast make a move and tell ATC about it later. Fly the plane.