I can’t define what “study level” means and I think no-one can.
It is my feeling / perception that the CRJ is quite far from study-level.
Textures are ok but not great, sound is not very good, it has no failures, no weather or terrain radar, etc.
And following your line you really don’t need to follow operations or documentation very seriously because it has no failures and while the buttons work many systems are really not simulated but scripted. The electric system works fine but have you run out of battery power?
I believe it is exactly what the price suggests a very high-quality middle-tier airliner.
Putting the study-level discussion aside I think it flies exactly as all the other airliners in MSFS, which is one of the biggest problems in MSFS flight model to me. The only plane that really handles differently is the DC6.
If you can not give a Definition of what is then how can you state something is not?
No Failures. Well MSFS has failures and those will affect this plane. This is not a Level D training device but that by definition also does not mean it is not Study Level.
No Weather or Terrain Rader . MSFS has not exposed these elements to the SDK in a way that they can use them… stated not just by them but by MS/Asobo just a few days ago it is still not a priority for them.
If you do not follow the correct steps the “failures” is that the plane won’t start… If you don’t have the proper systems on then the flaps won’t extend… If you don’t have the required power then the engine won’t start…either you need the APU or you Need the Ground Power… but yes if you don’t follow the correct “procedures” it won’t start. So yes you have to study the docs to fly it…
Is it a Training tool … well probably offers the level standard Flows Trainers they use before getting into the full motion Level D Training devices where they practice Failures and learn to fly the plane…
I also don’t know of anything anywhere outside of a Level D simulator that “flies” as close to a real plane as the Real Plane … I have access to a motion Red Bird at our flying club… That thing sucks yet is like $125K… I have flown a E190 Level D Simulator… Yup very cool and the next day I went and bought all the saitek panels I could find back then to start building a simulator.
Bottom Line … people love to be critics and the feeling that unless the thing is perfect then it is …“blah blah blah”… If you can’t define what “study level” means then you can’t say something is not study level. Is it a Level D training tool … No…
I think for most people ‘study level’ means that the plane and it’s systems fly and behave very similar to the real airplane.
This is still a bit subjective ofcourse. And limitations of the base sim come into play.
But clearly, a simulated airplane that follow the different performance curves and has almost all systems implemented to react as the real one would be more ‘study level’.
I honestly think it’s the PMDG 737. They teased the cockpit textures last year already and then said they were gonna push it back by 9 months (I think that was the time this entire ‘SDK not mature’ thing started). Time-wise it makes sense for it to be in alpha now to be released sometime around late summer.
And boy am I waiting for a 737
If it is as good as the DC-6 - I from PMDG I have no doubt it will be - it’ll be a day one purchase for me. And I don’t usually go for the “big tubes.”
I didn’t want to start another study level discussion, as there are more than enough other threads in this forum already.
For me the CRJ is somewhere in the mid range. I really enjoy to fly it and I don’t want to criticize it, but it’s not on the sample level like the PMDG stuff.
My “trigger” for the post was anyways that Matthijs said in the Aerosoft forum that the CRJ is not study level.
I fly little birds, like Pipers and Cessnas… usually. A “big” plane for me is a GA twin like a PA31 Chieftain, or perhaps the TBM. The DC-6 however, is more fun than I’ve had in Flight Sim… ever? For me, it’s quite a departure. (See what I did there?).
I think it’s the big radials with two-speed superchargers. And fifty degrees of flaps. And no GPS. And Hand flying each landing. Reversible props? Yes, please. Not to mention the deep level of systems detail. The landing lights dim when the gennies spin down. Makes me smile…
Influencers influence what they are paid to influence not because they have any actual influence or any actual knowledge or anything at all actually influential
They did completely change the flight model. The autopilot is completely rewritten from scratch as well as hydraulics, electrics …etx. the only thing left from the default stuff is the flight plan stuff which they are actively working on it.
That is why I was wondering about your comment, seeing all these pilots and engineers comments testing and benchmarking the flight model performance against the real life with numbers and approving these changes.
They said themselves that they are simulating piloting aircraft, and most secondary systems aren’t modelled. Whenever there is questions why half the switches are inop, this comes up.
Also “study-level” is relative. No computer simulation I am aware of is 100% able to study the real thing, though some are remarkably close.
As long as we don’t know what this rumor of a rumor is about the information gain sums up to nothing.
I do not follow such things anymore before I get concrete information. An influencer I never heard before posting that he has started alpha testing some new plane is attention seeking imo. It is more about him than about the plane or anything else. There will be thousands of people who are testing new planes right now who do not deem it necessary to let the world know, without saying anything.
That must have been fun. I grew up with dreams of flying a B-17… or a P-51. That era is long past, but I’m glad to have the opportunity to “fly” a four engine radial-powered propeller-driven aircraft. The fact that the systems seem so complete and well modelled… it’s satisfying to learn.
For pure “flying” my favorites in the sim - and the Mooney in real life - are the TBM and the Ovation. Fast, capable, and competent both.
I don’t think it’s from PMDG. They are pretty selective on who they invite into the testing program, and they usually only release it to influencers(well known)/reviewers once the release version is ready and it’s usually a week before release.
Having a unknown influencer in the PMDG testing program who is “bragging” about it seems to be 9 on the flying outhouse scale.
