Friendly Panels for CRJ

[HenryR]

Anyone who can help... would be much appreciated.

I've been tinkering with the stock FSX Bombadier CRJ700 as a transitional airplane from the Cessna Mustang to the PMDG 737NGX. One of the big drawbacks to this aircraft (at least in the stock version) is the lack of functionality in the FMC-CDU. I ran across the FriendlyPanel add-on for FSX which appears to address this, but reviews range from "excellent" to "lousy." So, I thought I would see if any of my fellow PE pilots have any experience with it, and would be willing to share your impressions on the good and bad points of the add-on.

A second negative on this airplane is that there does not appear to be a transponder mode switch. I can set the squawk frequency, but I can't find anywhere to set the XPDR to ON/STBY/ALT... am I missing something? Keith told me that this shortcoming can be solved within the PE Client menu, but I have not had the opportunity to try it yet.

Thanks to anyone who can comment.

Henry

[twharrell]

Truthfully, I don't think the CRJ will be easier to fly than the 737. In fact, some might argue the 737 is the easier to fly. But, if you want to fly the CRJ, you may want to wait for the FS/Aerosoft CRJ which should be released in April. If you want to fly default, look at ISG Simavionics over Friendly Panels.

Todd

[HenryR]

Thanks for the reply, Todd. After a couple of weeks with the CRJ, I'm inclined to agree that the 737 might not be any harder. I've had one headache after another with the autopilot, and the Garmin 500 GPS is really terrible... but I already knew this from flying the Carenado C337 Skymaster (nice airplane.. terrible avionics). I'll check into the Aerosoft CRJ when it comes out, and will try to find SimAvionics panel as well. And I just might try out the PMDG 737... I can sense the PE Controllers shuddering already!

-Henry

[Ryan B]

I'd recommend the PMDG bird.... the FMS is fairly intuitive. If you do one of their two tutorials you'll be able to easily navigate on Pilot edge....

I love hand flying the B738 as well.... great with the HUD or without.

Just need a decent PC to run it.

[HenryR]

Thanks for the comments, Ryan. I run a 4-PC, 6-monitor setup, with each PC built around a Quad-Core i7-3770 (3.5MHz) CPU, 16 GB RAM, Samsung 250 GB SSD's, and NVIDIA 650 GTX GPUs. Hopefully, that's enough computing power for the PMDG aircraft... although you can never have "too much" power...

One machine acts as the server and displays Panels on a 27" monitor. The second displays the forward view on a 24" monitor. The third and fourth display the left and right 45- and 90-degree views on two 24" monitors each (total of 4). I think I've read that the HUD doesn't work in multiple setups like this, but I might have misread that. Also, I think I can use the HUD by using the "Panel Monitor" system in Virtual mode. I plan to experiment with it...

-Henry