What does anybody that has flown the ERJ think of it?

[dogtown]

CONS:
Flight Director: The Honeywell Shuffle, clearing turns, tracking abilities,

You hit the nail on the head with the Honeywell, the Universal you don't get that. Plus great v-nav to boot.

 

[siucavflight]

if that's fairly roomy, i'd hate to see your definition of small. that cockpit is like a sardine can.

Not that small, have you ever flown a citation, or a lear? Now that is small, even compared to the CRJ the EMB is fairly roomy.

 

[pdub20s]

here is another question and im sure its a dumb sounding one...but recently i flew in a ERJ as a passenger on AE. It seemed like the pilot flying hand flew the ILS.. I could tell by the changes in input of power and changes in descent angle... can or do you guys actualy hand fly ils's???? or leave it up to the auto pilot?

 

[dojetdriver]

here is another question and im sure its a dumb sounding one...but recently i flew in a ERJ as a passenger on AE. It seemed like the pilot flying hand flew the ILS.. I could tell by the changes in input of power and changes in descent angle... can or do you guys actualy hand fly ils's???? or leave it up to the auto pilot?

Can't speak for everyone, but.......

Like has been stated, the AP is pretty sub stnadard in this airplane.With it on, it can fly very errattically. Sometimes when commanding a VS descent, it wil pitch up a little even as the bug on the VSI goes down to your pre selected VS. It thinks about it a minute and then leisurly pitches down to catch the bug.

On an approach, there are times when you just want to handfly the plane. You are bored, not fatigued, have a PC coming up and need to brush up on your flying skills in general, ect.

The other times, it reverts back to the autopilot issues. If you are cleared to join far out (15-20 miles) it does a terrible job of intercepting and tracking the LOC. It may overshoot, big time bad at someplace like DFW or IAH with close parallels. Once it overshoots, than grabs, it will turn back pretty agressivley. Some call it the drunk driving, other say that Stevie Wonder is in the house with all the side to side action going on. When you click it off and follow the LOC, you can see the FD constantly going right and left even though you are tracking the LOC. Regardless, there are times when you see this situation coming and juct click it off because this is one of those times that we can outfly the auto pilot. It can also do the same thing when following a glideslope. A constant bobbing motion. I don't see it as much on the GS, but is does happen.

 

[Espalda Mojado]

ok folks..we have heard about the ATR..now for the folks who are in the ERJ..What do you guys think about it? Would you rather fly something else?..etc.. lets here it!!

It is a good starter jet, but nothing compared to a Boeing!

 

[tjsatter]

I know you guys in the ERJ dont do much of this..But what about when it comes to hand flying?? how does it handle??

The single biggest difference between the ERJ and the Freightliners/Peterbilts I drove in my previous job is in speed. It's a faster truck and the freight loads/unloads itself

tj

 

[flighttime]

You can also impress controllers by making the thing drop out of the sky when they leave you high on a visual. Had one tell me once that they weren't worried about a 145 making it down, but the crj is a differnt story.

 

[detwilers]

You can also impress controllers by making the thing drop out of the sky when they leave you high on a visual. Had one tell me once that they weren't worried about a 145 making it down, but the crj is a differnt story.

I have to disagree. The ERJ doesn't come down nearly as fast as the CRJ. The speed brakes work great on the CRJ. I did a repo from ORD to Fargo one morning in the CRJ. We got PD from 35,000 to 2,500. The CA said watch this! He didn't start down until 30 miles out. Pulled the brakes out. He put it in Speed hold DES at MMO/VMO and the airplane pitched down to -18 degrees. The VSI pegged at 10,000 fpm down so I don't even know the true descent rate. It was nice to know that you could get it down real fast and in true emergengy you can leave out the 250kt at 10,000 that could put you on the ground from cruise in a matter of a few minutes!

 

[huncowboy]

I have no comparison as this is my only jet so far.

I find the ERJ easy to fly and operate. There is not a lot to do in flight, except to manage thrust and cross check. The instruments, color codes, and systems seem to be well grouped. Things make sense overall. Since I got me a plug in type headset with molds the noise and wearing the DC Clark is not an issue anymore. That part of wiping the DCs all the time did suck though. Many complain about crosswind approaches (holding the yoke to the left on the FO side gets old after 10-20 seconds) but I like to hold crab until ground effect so my hand never gets fatigued. The yoke itself is very comfortable. We have a good MX and although this is a jungle jet, there aren't too many MELs however I have nothing to compare this to. On a 4 day I fly an average of 6-8 planes and I may see a total of 2-4 MELs mostly for small stuff. As long it is not pack #1 it is all good.

A couple of things that I don't like:
- we are only allowed to do flaps 45 landings (as of now) which sucks in gusty conditions... easy to overspeed
- the elevator is actuated by cables so you fly this plane with trims all the time or you are getting a workout
- the chart holder is useless... everyone puts charts on the side which means you will look aside once in a while while flying an approach
- bulbs in switches seems to go out a lot
- George with a private pilot's decision skills... let's go left... no no... lets go right
- not enough room in the 135 for crew bags
- removing the nose gear pin while the thug is attached results in some ineresting gymnastics that reminds the observer of gay porn
- the lav stinks
- no place for hats, jackets, coats other than throwing them on the bags or hanging them at places where they don't beling to (ie on the fire estinguisher)
- CRTs are often out of focus as they are getting older

It seems like lots of complaints but most of them are pretty minor.

So far I have jumpseated in RJs, Boeings, and in MD80s. Mostly with Delta, US Air and SW. Of course I would love to fly those planes for those companies but if that ever happens I will have a hard time trading the automation and the moderns cockpit of my jungle jet for a typical mainline airplane (except may be for a bus). The cockpit design has changed so much that to me i.e. the 80 and the 73 (the older generation), even the 75 seemed like you would have to pay more attention to what the airplane was doing, more cross checking etc... but than again I know nothing about those planes and this was just the impression I was getting while in the js. No offense meant to anyone who is flying those sweet birds.

 

[siucavflight]

here is another question and im sure its a dumb sounding one...but recently i flew in a ERJ as a passenger on AE. It seemed like the pilot flying hand flew the ILS.. I could tell by the changes in input of power and changes in descent angle... can or do you guys actualy hand fly ils's???? or leave it up to the auto pilot?

I gaurntee you that you have no way of knowing that from the back of the airplane.