Mini-Review: feelThere/Wilco ERJ v2

feelThere! seems to have something of a mixed reputation in the Flight Sim community. Some of their products, such as the 737 PIC (737 "Classic" series), have been rather good as mid-level simulations -- not PMDG-level detail, but enough detail of simulated systems to make the experience rather realistic and fun without bogging things down too much. Other products, such as the Airbus series, are so-so: while they look nice and certainly have the look of flying in an Airbus, they lack the feel of a true fly-by-wire aircraft. Many of their older products have a reputation for having rather substantial bugs...their 777 is notorious in my book for having a severely broken FMS, to such an extent that I don't even fly that plane anymore.

However, I will say that feelThere! seems to have taken their game up another level with their most recent products. Their E-Jets, released in 2008, is quite good, and the newly-released Embraer Regional Jets (aka ERJ v2) generally continues that trend. They seem to have a thing for doing nice simulated versions of Embraer's jets of late. Their original ERJ-145 PIC, released back in 2005 and subsequently ported to FSX, was my first introduction to feelThere!, and actually remained one of my favorite little planes to fly for a long time. I have really enjoyed their E-Jets product, and I was pretty excited to learn that they were working on a refresh and expansion of the ERJ product.

Indeed, feelThere! did not disappoint with their new Embraer Regional Jets add-on. There are a slew of other features added as well. These include:

• Two new ERJ variants: the shortened ERJ-135, and the range-enhanced ERJ-145XR. (They left out the slightly shorter ERJ-140, which isn't terribly popular and seems to have been produced primarily for American Eagle Airlines. Flightaware doesn't even distinguish it from an ERJ-135.)
• Reworking of many visual elements of the 2D panels and VC to look more realistic.
• Fully working simulated weather radar, similar to the one implemented in the E-Jets.
• Call! for the ERJ is now included at no extra charge. You get simulated First Officer calls for various important phases of the flight, such as "Positive Rate of Climb - Gear Up."
• A load manager is now included with the ERJ.
• An online checklist for helping you run through the startup and shutdown procedures of the ERJ is now included.
• The FMS implementation is more complete now, allowing such things as missed approaches and alternate landing sites. It retains full Navigraph database support, as found in the previous version.
• A few liveries are included with each ERJ this time. McPhat Studios have done two more livery packs that cover most popular operators of the ERJ to date.

In spite of the similarity to its predecessor, feelThere! insists that the ERJ is a reimplementation from scratch. Here is a look at the exterior models of the planes. First, the ERJ-135 in a Continental Express livery, bundled with the ERJ:



Next, an ERJ-145LR (the base model) also in a Continental Express livery, available from McPhat's optional ERJ World Airliners Vol. 1 package:



And finally, the ERJ-145XR in the Embraer House livery -- nobody has done a Continental Express livery for this one yet, although ExpressJet does indeed fly the type for Continental Express. Note the use of winglets on the ERJ-145XR:



Here is a quick tour of the visual elements of the flight deck, starting with the virtual cockpit:



One minor disappointing aspect is that the round buttons in the center of the VC appear flat, while everything else is very nicely modeled in 3D. Here is a closeup shot which illustrates this:



I'm curious as to why they did this. Simple oversight? Trying to conserve framerates, perhaps? Even if the center buttons are not as tall as the ones on the right, the perspective is way off. It just looks peculiar.

Here is the main 2D panel:



Here is the overhead panel, including the lights:



Here is the panel for center pedestal, including the throttles, trim, flaps, FADEC, and pressurization settings:



Note that the ERJ, unlike the E-Jets, does not come with an autothrottle. This is modeled faithfully here. The FADEC helps you manage your thrust somewhat, but you still have to take care not to overspeed the airframe with too much thrust.

Here is a new popup for the checklists:



Here is a panel for the FMS:



If you are familiar with flying the old ERJ-145 PIC add-on, you can pretty much hop in and go with these new ERJ's. feelThere! has kept everything similar enough that the learning curve is practically nil.

The ERJ (just like its chief competitor, the Bombardier/Canadair CRJ) is typical of modern regional jets in that it lacks an autothrottle. LNAV mode for lateral navigation supported in the FMS and autopilot, but it is entirely up to the pilot to manage thrust during ascent, cruise, and descent. I am told the manufacturers leave out the autothrottle to save money. This can be a bit annoying if you were expecting an autothrottle, but once you get used to it, it's not so bad. I actually find the ERJ to be a fun little jet to fly in FSX; it's consistently one of my favorites, in fact. (Though admittedly, they are tantamount to a flying sardine can in real life.) It's simple enough that you can get up and flying without a steep learning curve, yet functional enough to keep you engaged for a long, long time. This is my go-to plane for simulating regional jet traffic at the moment, until somebody does a really nice CRJ someday. Even then, I'll still be flying the ERJ some.

[EDIT: the article previously stated that VNAV mode is also supported in the ERJ, which is incorrect.  The ERJ autopilot does have the ability to adjust the rate of ascent or descent to match a target speed via the FLC mode, but as it is up to the pilot to manage thrust manually, there is no way to implement a true VNAV mode in this aircraft.]

My complaints about the ERJ v2 are minor: the aforementioned substandard visual elements in the virutal cockpit, for one. In addition, I've tried flying the plane VC-only, as is increasingly the trend with add-on aircraft these days, but there is another irritating bug involving the chronometer: it is not fully functional in the VC, and appears to be mainly a placeholder. In the 2D panel, it actually works. Why is this? Hopefully this will be addressed in an update. There are a slew of other little bugs, and feelThere! has a running announcement of the ones they are aware of, and whether they have been fixed yet for the next patch update. Fortunately, I have not found any of the bugs to be major showstoppers: they have done a good job overall of avoiding CTDs and other severe problems.

Bottom line: if you're looking for a fun regional jet to fly, you can't go wrong with this one. It's a little rough around the edges, as is typical for a 1.0 release, but it should get better with time. Don't let the minor bugs get you down too much. This is a fun plane that will entertain you for hours on end without demanding too much from you. Best of all, the price is very reasonable, roughly US $50. (The extra McPhat repaints are around US $15 each per pack.) Put a big red bow on an ERJ and stick it in your virtual hangar this holiday season!

Rating: ****