Stephen Posted September 16, 2016 Report Share Posted September 16, 2016 Aircraft Review : Embraer E-175 v2.0 by X-Crafts The Brazilian Embraer family of regional aircraft has been successful in one of the most successful niche markets in aviation in the last few decades. While the big boys and girls at Boeing and Airbus slugged it out for the single-aisle 150-180 seater market. Embraer and Canada's Bombardier’s CRJ Series quietly created a whole new category in the 60 -100 seater regional markets and those markets are now one of the most contested markets for future sales with Bombardier’s entry into service (EIS) C-Series and Embraer with their updated E2 Series. In X-Plane there is a similar reflection of Embraer E-175 and E190/5's from both Supercritical Simulation Group (SSG) and X-Crafts versions of the same series. SSG only last month released their latest version of their E-175 called the "Evolution" and here is the v2.0 release of X-Crafts E-175. With both coming at almost the same time it does look like a coincidence or even as a "tit for tat" release, but that is far from the truth as they just fell in around each other or were in the same places in the development cycle, as the early X-Crafts beta v2.0 versions were available well before the SSG version was released. This is also not going to be a direct comparison review between the two versions either, that will be done at another time, and I admit it would be a great comparison that is worth recording. But here the focus is just on the v2.0 release of the X-Crafts aircraft. The original release (v1.0) of the X-Crafts E-175 was just before Christmas 2015. And even at this early stage this E-Jet was significantly the best of all the E-Jet family series for X-Plane and building upon the high standard for the time of the first E-Jet from X-Crafts with their E-195LR. X-Crafts E-175 v2.0 Externally v2.0 is almost exactly the same as the last version. Which is a good thing and not a bad one as the biggest feature of X-Crafts E-Jets was the quality of its external airframe which came with a very nice shine to the fuselage, and the aircraft always looked very good in great lighting conditions. Only changes externally are the engine fans now rotate the same way and there is now more added screws around the wings and fuselage (it is of course very worrying that you flew with not enough screws to hold it all together in the earlier versions). The front nose gear was not animated before (did you notice?) it is now and the aircraft looks better for that. With the aircraft powered down the cockpit looks great, again at first glance it does not look that different to the earlier version. But to note in this power off view the panel reflections are very good and authentic. Power on and the panels look good, but again not much different on the face of it all. The changes for v2.0 are small and subtle in fixing up the correct switchgear and knobs and small items that you thought were working before but actually were not. The only really big visual change is the overhead panel which has been completely redone... v1.1 Panel v2.0 Panel Spot the differences? Most of the knobs have been redesigned to reflect the correct switchgear now on a real E-175. The lighting panels are completely different with the switches of different types, and the use is slightly different as well. There is also added left and right landing light switches and there has been a removed avionics switch as it does not exist in the real aircraft. The Avionics now come on automatically with the battery 1 selection., the hydraulic knobs now also longer turn in unison, and each starts the hydraulics pump separately. If you remember on the earlier versions many of the switches were tied in together, were as you turned one switch the other activated the same way. I really didn't like this effect and most of those items have now been separated and work independently. Tekton FMS System The main feature on v2.0 is the updated Tekton FMS. The built in Flight Mangement Computer (FMC) was released on the original version and had a slight update on v1.1, but here in the v2.0 version it has had a big overhaul. It still does the same flightplan layout with the three separate elements, and those are: SID (Standard Instrument Departure) - Route - STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) You can save a route but only the center "Route" portion to a standard .fms file. When you reload it you have then rebuild the departure SID and approach STAR waypoints from scratch, so you don't reload the entire route and just fly. My flight today is from LFMN - Nice to LIRF - Rome (Fiumicino) and we will programme the FMS to fly that route. The RADIO page is now the default start up page as it is on the real FMS system (it was the MCDU INDEX page before) and to go to the MCDU INDEX you just press the L6 key. v1.1 MCDU INDEX v2.0 MCDU INDEX There are some changes on the MCDU INDEX page from the earlier versions. Left keys are still the same, but the right key list is different with the (RK6) RADIO key gone (now selection is directly on the keyboard menu) and that is replaced by the PERF (Performance) page. Top of the list (RK1) "FLT PLAN" is also gone and that entry has been replaced by the new "PROGRESS" page. The rest of the input keys to insert the DEPARTURE and ARRIVAL entries, and the corresponding SID and STARS are still the same as is the ROUTE input and LOAD and SAVE (as noted the load and save only loads or saves the route center segment to .fms). Direct keyboard input On of the new Tekton FMS features is the excellent direct keyboard input into the MCDU FMS. Selecting (LK2) DEPARTURE brings up the "Departure" page to input your departure airport, runway, SID and Transition. To use the direct input you just press the title on the top of the page which in this case is DEPARTURE. You are now in the active keyboard input mode as designated by the green circle O in the top left of the display. Anything you now type into the scratchpad will now be live from your keyboard, to go out of the direct input mode just press the DEPARTURE title again... simple and brilliant! Just note that when in the active mode the usual X-Plane input is cancelled and that means any screenshots or other areas don't work, until you click out to normal again. But you very quickly and easily use the system and navigating in and out of the active modes, it is so very easy to use and you are very quickly using it as per normal in programming the system. You now input all the rest of the DEPARTURE items with airport runway, SID and Transition details as you did on the earlier v1.0 version. You use the knob to select and go up and down the selections, PREV or NEXT is used to go to the next page, then press the centre of the knob to activate that selection and you get a "SID STORED" note on the display. You do your STAR ARRIVAL the same way with the airport LIRF- Roma Fiumicino, then the Runway, STAR and Transition details, when done you again press the centre of the knob to activate that selection and you get a "STAR ELEMENT STORED" note on the display. The DEP (SID) and ARR (STAR) elements are now done, so now we will fill in the center ROUTE section. This is done by pressing on the MENU INDEX page the L4 key. Select either an - Airport, VOR, NDB or FIX waypoint and add in the name of the navigation aid, you can add in the altitude here also. SAVE to insert the waypoint into the route list. The new v2.0 version also allows you to now add in AIRWAYS. These sections are inserted by noting the last ROUTE waypoint entered or the last waypoint of your SID to enter an airway. Then choose an airway direction and finally choose the exit waypoint. Then you can add in more standard waypoints or enter a different airway as you build up your route list. When the route is completed you can see the full list by going to ROUTE EDIT, and there you can edit the list or change the route selections. I only have three waypoints as the flight is quite short from LFMN to LIFR. You can check the sections and the amount of waypoints inserted on the STATUS page. You have to take a little diversion from your flightplan execution to do your PERF - Performance settings BEFORE you load in (or initialize) the flightplan... ... GoTo PERF on the MCDU INDEX page. There are three pages to set up for the aircraft flight performance. First page is "Takeoff" With aircraft settings on the left and flap settings on the right, you can switch between either LBS or KG via RK5. Second page covers your "Cruise" settings and third page covers the "Approach" settings. You can adjust the App settings with the Iceing situation on or off in that the bleed will affect the engine performance. The slightly messy area is now finding the way of loading the flightplan into the FMS. You go to the PROGRESS page and then... ... Goto to FLT PLAN (moved from the main INDEX menu) and then first INT (initialize) the data or in plain Engilsh assemble the flightplan together, then press EXEC to Execute or load into the FMS the full flightplan. The Flightplan is now always listed on the FLT PLAN page and is shown on the Navigation display. You can always edit each of the three segments and then reinitialize the flightplan and Execute the new version. So overall the flow in lots of ways of creating the flightplan is the same, but now differently set out to insert the flightplan into the system and it is far better than the original way of setting up the FMS, as it is more smoother and has a far better building flow. The only negatives are that you can't see the waypoints as you build up the flightplan or edit it, until you reinitialize the three changed segments. Then you have to reedit it again and reinitialize it until you have the flightplan you want, which can be slow work if you have to adjust the SID and STARs that don't quite fit the route you want or dovetail correctly into your central route waypoints, it also makes it harder to see on the display which SID or STAR is best for the DEP or ARR segements, so any "well I'll try this one" doesn't work here as you will have to be very clear which SID and STAR from the chart you require is correct before selecting it. The completed route red navigation line shown in the navigation display is the standard X-Plane version, which looks very out of date now and it would have been better if it had reflected the huge amount of changes of this now far better FMS unit with a more modern navigation route layout. Other notes with the new v2.0 Tekton FMS are: Added all altitude constraint types. Added several new leg types to provide more accurate depiction of fix to fix legs. Removed transition requirement leading to final approaches, making all possible approaches to an airport available for selection. Added default visual departure and approach waypoints automatically when an airport is selected (overwritten when appropriate procedure elements are selected). Added ability to edit your STAR while enroute and re-execute without needing to use a complex autopilot procedure to maintain course. FMS flightplan and fuel loaded, we just wait while the aircraft is being finalised on the ground. You can get a very good SET for this E-175 to use the JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe Plugin. The earlier set had the stairs going through the aircraft, but it is all fixed and very good now... Menus are still the same and located on your left lower point of the screen, move your mouse to make them appear. The three menus cover (M) Doors, Ground Objects, GPU and Pushback. Then (P) covers the pushback settings in distance and turn direction. (C) cover the Checklist and very good and handy it is. (note in flight only the Checklist menu is available). v2.0 has had a revision of the sounds, and items like the GPU and APU now create better sounds. Also if you open the doors or windows then the external sounds are now louder in the cockpit, they do feel far better and more realistic. New callouts are also now available if you have correctly set up the PREFs on the FMS with V speed callouts as you reach the set speeds. "V1," "ROTATE", "V2" and "TAKEOFF OKAY." are all now working correctly, and alerts "NO TAKEOFF SPOILER," "NO TAKEOFF FLAPS," "NO TAKEOFF TRIM" and/or "NO TAKEOFF BRAKES" will inform you if you don't do the correct settings. One thing that has become an annoyance is that every time you do a mouse click on anything you get a click in sound, click here, click there and after a time it gets annoying... A full total review of the exterior and all the panel and instrument details of X-Crafts E-175 is available here: Aircraft Review : Embraer E-175 by X-Crafts Flying the v2.0 E-175 by X-Crafts Pushback completed, I taxied towards my departure runway, but a change of runway from RWY 04L to 04R required the RWY setting in the FMS to be changed, it was simple to do by going to the Departure airport, changing the runway, then initializing the new flightplan and then EXEC the flightplan. The process was clean and worked perfectly. There are a few small tricks on taking off this X-Crafts E-Jet. You need to set the V/S (Vertical Speed) (2000fpm) and arm it, also the NAV/FMS needs to be also armed. Once you rotate and have a "positive climb" then retracted the flaps straight away and hit the A/P (autopilot) button, get the process right and the takeoff is clean or perfect, but leave the flaps out and your V/S will suffer or the aircraft will fight against the climb. Rotation is around 162knts +10 depending on your weight. Once the flightplan is activated the new v2.0 PROGRESS page comes alive... I have a big love of PROGRESS pages (yes I am a bit weird that way) but to have one now in the E-175 is a big step forward for me with this aircraft, and this is a very good and detailed version. The X-Crafts E-Jet always looks sensational in the air. During the climb phase the distance values have been adjusted for realism between 10K and 30K (270KIAS) to be slightly slower, and you feel that slight falloff during the climb. Lower than 10,000ft there are not any power restrictions. X-Plane puts on a great view of the coast of Corsica as I approach my cruise altitude (285) and the island is already a full view to the left. I like the ease of setting up the RADIO page ready for the LIRF RWY 34R Approach, the new direct keyboard input is a big step forward in adding in the frequencies. Note the cruise speed of M.80, the v2.0 has had the speeds revised and to the correct speed of M.82 based on the weight of the aircraft. A note in that the KIAS and Mach transition speed is quite high in the E-175 is FL300, not my usual FL250... nice to know. Like the (above) PROGRESS page the STATUS page (below) is also updated in real time. The navigation section in the Primary Flight Display is a compass rose (with built in course/CDI). It should also have the NDB and VOR pointers that should appear when the VOR2 signal is picked up, which I have done here with (OST) Rome. They are however on the outer part of the MAP display, but the two buttons to activate these pointers are given another job instead to select the VOR1 and VOR 2 direct heading selection? And you miss those VOR/NDB pointers to align up a runway manually out of your direct eyeline. As the Corsica east coast slips by it will be soon time to start our descent into LIRF as the Italian west coast comes into view. I used the airbrakes briefly a few times to keep the speed in check on the descent, and it worked very well. Final hard left turn to final and approach shows off the excellent underside of the E-175, detail is very good and there has been a few touchups in v2.0, but most small. The aircraft is great on finals with good throttle control and handling, you can easily control the aircraft at it's slow speed, and toch down is around 132knts. Excellent spoiler and engine reverse animation and action is swift in slowing down the aircraft. LIRF's remote assigned stand is 202, and with the spooling down of the General Electric CF34-8E engines, the services come around the aircraft, job done. Liveries There are no new liveries with v2.0 but included in the package is: Air Canada, Alitalia, American Eagle, Delta, Delta Connection (Compass), Emrbaer House colors, Flybe, UE Tulip, United Express (SkyWest), US Airways (Black), US Airways (White), Plain White and White dirty. And there is a wide free selection from 3rd parties on the .Org like these below and all are excellent and 4K HD quality. Summary As noted in this review the biggest feature in v2.0 is that Tekton FMS. It is not just the excellent new features in the FMS like the PROGRESS page but the new reorganizing of the whole unit is also very good, but it does flow and work far better as well. It is not totally perfect from my angle because you can't build the routes as you can see them and save in the sections when done as you go along, but almost everything else is laid out there. And keep an eye on this style of FMS as it will start popup in other aircraft in X-Plane as well. In other areas like the new overhead panel and many other areas the E-175 has had a fair bit of attention, but X-Crafts has thankfully left the original external design alone and the aircraft is all the better for that. A few quirks do however do drop this E-Jet just under that excellent position, like the red line Nav display, the missing heading rose pointers and the pitch numbers look wrong on the Primary Flight Display. All sounds are well improved and in cruise mode the aircraft is a nice place to be, it flies really well as well, but watch those little tricks on takeoff to transition cleanly to your climb position. X-Crafts is also noting this v2.0 is a paid upgrade (US$5) to this version but that is still excellent value for a really nice aircraft with a lot of great features and certainly closes the gap between these two excellent E-Jets available in X-Plane, overall none of them come out as the better of each other, but the line is now getting very close... and the winner will be in the upgrades and future versions, but for now the X-Crafts version is slightly the cheaper of the two... so the choice is yours. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Embraer E175 v2.0 by X-Crafts is NOW available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here : Embraer E-175 v2.0 Price is US$39.95 If you have already purchased the Embraer E-175 from X-Craft's at the X-Plane.OrgStore then go to your account and upgrade to v2.0 for only US$5.00, Please email [email protected] to get your discount code and include you original order number. Features Accurate dimensions based on drawings and documentation provided by Embraer © Windows, Mac and Linux compatible Custom FMS Custom pushback plugin with animated tug On-screen checklist plugin - Plugin menu for door control, ground objects or GPU Tested by a real Embraer E175 pilot CUSTOM FMS both the custom and stock FMS are available on the pedestal or as popup panels More details about the FMS below INTERIOR: Amazing 3D modeling of cockpit and cabin High resolution textures High resolution Embraer style PFD, MFD, EICAS displays Pop-up screens, pop-up radios panel MFD with 8 synoptic pages and a new improved Navigation displa High resolution textures on panels - Text is crisp and clear to real Intuitive cockpit manipulation - I have always taken great care to make the cockpit as easy to use as possible. This means all clickable areas in the cockpit are very big so that you can easily click on any button, knob or lever in the cockpit Each switch, lever, knob, and handle is animated Detailed cockpit lighting - All cockpit lights are controllable Cargo area modeled HUD equipped EXTERIOR 4K High resolution textures (fuselage 10000px/meter squared) Highly detailed landing gears Flap and speedbrakes mechanisms modeled Realistic Wingflex animation 2 versions of winglets available 9 Liveries included so far and more are on the way! Accurate dimensions based on drawings and documentation provided by Embraer © Windows, Mac and Linux compatible Custom TEKTON FMS© by Steve Wilson Custom pushback plugin with animated tug On-screen checklist plugin Plugin menu for door control, ground objects or GPU Tested by a real Embraer E175 pilot Suitable for beginners - Just load and fly within seconds! Great for advanced users -Enjoy the complexity of the Custom FMS! TEKTON FMS© Features: Direct Keyboard Entry (DKE) Custom MCDU Interface: SID, ROUTE and STAR waypoint lists are treated as separate editable items Color keyed data presentation Scratchpad data entry Interactive feedback Both the custom and stock FMS are available on the pedestal or as popup panels Procedures Enhanced for V2.0: SIDS and STARS from X-Plane stock or third party custom data New: Altitude constraints for procedures New: Refined procedures leg routing New: More flexible STAR element selection New: Default visual departure and approach New : Edit and reload STAR while enroute while in autopilot Ability to easily edit SIDs, Routes, STARS and the loaded FLT PLAN New AIRWAYS options New Progress Monitoring on two new pages New Performance Flight Planning: New PERF 1 page providing preflight and takeoff data New PERF 2 page allowing route fuel planning New PERF 3 page for approach data INTERIOR: Amazing 3D modeling of cockpit and cabin High resolution textures High resolution Embraer style PFD, MFD, EICAS displays Pop-up screens, pop-up radios and FMS panels MFD with 8 synoptic pages High resolution textures on panels - Text is crisp and clear with any rendering options Intuitive cockpit manipulation - I have always taken great care to make the cockpit as easy to use as possible. This means all clickable areas in the cockpit are very big so that you can easily click on any button, knob or lever in the cockpit Each switch, lever, knob, and handle is animated Detailed cockpit lighting - All cockpit lights are controllable Cargo area modeled HUD equipped EXTERIOR 4K High resolution textures (fuselage 10000px/meter squared) Highly detailed landing gears, Flap and speedbrake mechanisms Realistic Wingflex animation 2 versions of winglets available Pilots in external view All doors are animated and controllable from the plugin menu OTHER FEATURES Compatible with UFMC, X-FMC Compatible with JAR's Ground Handling Deluxe New exterior night lighting. You can now operate any of the following lights: NAV, Strobe, Beacon, Left/Nose/Right landing lights, Side/Nose taxi lights, Inspection lights, Logo lights. All lights including Nav and Strobe lights cast light on the surroundings. Audible Alert System Custom sounds https://youtu.be/Txgp0xCRNMs Video is only available via YouTube ______________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download is 720.30 mb which is unzipped to your X-Plane in your regional Jet folder (if you have one or "Heavy Aircraft") at 822.40mb with the extra liveries loaded. Documentation : Demo Flight & Instructions, v2.0 Feature List, FMS Tekton Manual, 2.0 Manual (including a full set of speed charts) - (52 pages) Requirements : X-Plane 10.50+ (any edition) - running in 64bit mode Windows, MAC or Linux - 64 bit Operating System required 4Gb RAM - 1Gb VRAM Minimum. 2Gb VRAM Recommended Current version: 2.0 (last updated September 22 2016) ______________________________________________________________________ X-Crafts Developer Support : ERJ - 175 by X-Crafts - X-Plane.Org ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 23rd September 2016 Copyright©2016: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global v10.50 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: WorldTraffic 2.2 X-Plane.OrgStore US$29.95 : JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe US$14.95 : Headshake by SimCoders (free) Scenery or Aircraft - LFMN Nice Côte d'Azur Airport by JustSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$19.95 - LIRF - Roma Fiumicino Leonardo Da Vinci v4.0 by DtRs90 (Wehrlipub - Seaman2020) - (X-Plane.Org) - Free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alpha Whiskey Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Wouldn't it be better to simulate the Honeywell FMS/MCDU that is in the real aircraft? The FMS in the Wilco/Feelthere E-175 for FSX has a good simulation of key features of the real FMS. The buttons on this MCDU don't look like the real thing and the flow is different. Where are the NAV and PERF buttons? Why are PREV and NEXT in the wrong positions? This seems out of keeping with the approach to the overhead panels. I want to buy a good E-175 for XP 11, but hope it has a closer simulation of the MCDU. Amru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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