When the planes released, they were hated. But I wanted to ask, iff they are now flyable when flying in Vatsim. With that I mean if there is a working MCDU with simbrief integration and if you can now use the AP.
A leopard can’t change its spots
Don’t know about VATSIM because I do not fly on it.
No SimBrief integration, but why would you need it?
But overall FSS E-Jets are good as early access product. With every update they are getting better.
Only what I miss the most, better FMS.
LNAV works good, but only direct point to point or I didn’t find a way to input airway. VNAV is missing but if you have experience you can calculate your TOD.
Right now FLCH and VS mode are functional.
This is my experience from about 20+ flights with E170 and E190.
Why are you saying it has no Simbrief integration, You use the EFB to load in a Simbrief flight plan and send performance data to MCDU. In the MCDU to load your Simbrief flight plan. The EFB also supports Navigraph charts.
Yes they are flyable, I’m finding them very fun. I really enjoy the flight dynamics as well. BTW there is very good simbrief integration and it’s explained in their manual.
There are some quirks, personally I really don’t like the reverse thrust implementation (I have the Bravo), I can’t get them to work following their tutorial.
Since I fly offline I don’t really miss VNAV, I just use pitch hold at -3 degrees. However if you’re online with ATC I reckon it’s not straightforward to fly all STAR constraints properly. I also struggle with the FMC sometimes when you have entered a STAR and approach and then ATC (BeyondATC in my case) gives you a different one and you have to reprogram. I’m not sure if there are bugs, but in combination with no VNAV the workload can be very high on approach.
I would love to have a good E-jet in the sim but since I only fly on VATSIM the lack of VNAV is a dealbreaker for me. Sure, it’s possible to manually calculate the descent but why not fly the Fenix A320 instead where everything works? Arrivals are hectic enough without having to do math (although quite simple but still).
Well, I do not use Simbrief, I love to do it manually.
So that is why I didn’t notice it in E-Jets.
What a weird question. Most people who fly airliners use Simbrief and expect a full integration in a full fidelity plane.
You should probably wait until the plane is formally released. The MCDU is still default but all other systems have been completed. It flies great, I prefer it over many other more expensive planes like 737, BAE146 and Fokker, but you have to oversee the flight. If you want AP to do it all it’s not there yet.
I’ve had it since it’s day one release and it improves greatly with each update. Updates are monthly. The bad rap started with NGDriver and I think he has since regretted, he has lost a lot of viewers, me for one.
It started mainly when the FSS guys said there’s no VNAV modelled and that they don’t plan to include it as allegedly some real E-jets pilots told them that they don’t use it anyway. And that was objected by a bunch of some other real E-jets pilots and FSS changed their attitude and said they’ve always planned to include VNAV but it will take time. And they apparently struggle as that and custom FMS is practically only thing that still holds it in the EA state.
It’s still far away from the fidelity of the 737, 146 or F28 but it surely is a nice aircraft to fly. For me the main flaw is not the lack of VNAV (it’s only about TOD and descent planning) but the inability to enter airways and edit flight plans, like SID/STAR waypoints. One can always bypass it with DIR feature but it’s annoying. It really needs the custom FMS, that should be priority.
Maybe it’s all sounding negatively but I really recommend to get this aircraft, especially the E190/195 pair because you can for example do the steep approach to EGLC in the E190 and the feature is already modelled in the addon. That always feels special. And actually FSS stepped up the game with their B727F which I consider as one of the best aircraft made for MSFS at the moment. I know that’s a different team but that increased my trust in the company.
P.S.: There IS a Simbrief integration.
I do like payware aircraft since FSX where you enter manually data in FMC.
Simbrief is handy when it comes to enter long route, for example, but and other route with few legs and airways is not too much to enter it manually.
Also Simbrief gives me more feeling like in default FSX aircraft where you find route before entering flight.
And maybe, meybe just my opinion or people are lazy to enter data manually.
I think it will be the aircraft I fly the most. I really like it. Looks good, sounds good en flies pretty well. But I DO miss the VNAV at the moment. I don’t like the manual descent. But it will be fine.
I don’t get why VNAV takes so long to develop.
Because for that they need to program the custom FMS which is a really huge task, thousands of lines of code. Then I guess the programming of their own LNAV and VNAV calculations aren’t easy as well (in some of their previous development updates they showed the complexity of the process) and also they’ve lost some time with converting instruments from Java to WASM which on the other hand brought us a really significant performance improvement.
I have to say I like the E190/195 (the only variant I have) very nice to hand fly too. Very usable and a polished 3d model. Would be a great product except for the FMS (which is currently basic) and lack of VNAV.
The thing is that they have been promising VNAV for a looong time now.
When I bought the E190/5 this year it was becasue they said VNAV was coming “in the summer” (2024), that soon got pushed to oh “we will likely have a beta ready by then”, quickly followed by oh “it will be later in the year because it’s summer and people are on holiday”. Now call me cynical, but this is the definition of stringing people along. All while continually selling it as an EA product even on the marketplace ( a first?).
I do still live in hope though and it is like I said it’s still an enjoyable aircraft as is. It’s just very late with FMS/VNAV, and many others have been waiting for it considerably longer than I have.
So, is VNAV the only complaint? What else needs work? I’m also on the fence with this one but, leaning into it as the updates progress.
Many things to be a high fidelity AddOn.
Custom LNAV/VNAV and this needs the custom FMS. They need to do all that from scratch and this will still take a long time till its finished. These are very, very complex calculations/systems to code, that need to work together. If you want it fully ready, id say its a year more to wait for sure…
I have flown the E170/175 all around the USA on VATSIM on and off over the last few months and have been able to do so with no issues other than what’s already known. It absolutely needs a custom FMS along with LNAV/VNAV, but if you know how to plan your own descents etc it’s not that big of a deal. You just have to be aware of the quirks the basic FMS has beacuse at times it goes the wrong direction. I find that happens most in the terminal area arriving at the last fix on the STAR. When it does that I just swith to HDG mode and fly it manually. The rest of the time I find the airplane can handle most of the other navigation demands without issue.
I also feel like they are kicking the can down the road on the custom FMS etc. Time will tell if it actually ever happens, but in the meantime the E170/175 is a fun airplane to fly. You just have to think and plan ahead so you aren’t caught off guard buy it’s issues.
So you would recommend it for flying offline? I own it, never use it. Thinking about reading up on that manual and starting to fly it, but I want to know now if this is a worthy task.
Thanks! Would you rather recommend the 170 or the 190?
I recommend all of them, lol but if you have to choose just one package then I would get the 190/195 as they also come with a HUD and they have the steep approach feature for airports like EGLC included.