Back in May, X-Crafts released their ERJ family of aircraft for X-Plane 11. Since then, the team has listened to community feedback to provide a brand new update that significantly updates the product in a variety of ways.
On the X-Plane.org forums, the team gave a comprehensive look at the changes, fixes and new additions to the aircraft. Over 70 items have been changed or updated as a direct result of the developer’s continued support. The changes have been documented in the following areas: Aircraft related, Model Related, Textures, Sound and Change by Steve.
In the aircraft related changes, some things addressed include spool up/down times, fixes to the fuel page and things such as EICAS messages overlapping. With the modelling and texture work, users can expect to see fixes to the NAV lights, cabin lights are now controllable, and there have been fixes to the speedbrake textures. For the sound enthusiasts, you will be pleased to hear that the sound has been encoded in 5.1 surround sound. Improvements in bass effects, callouts and thrust reverse sounds have also been included with update 1.10 for the ERJ Family by X-Crafts.
The full list of changes has been documented below for your convenience. You can also get involved in the discussion on the forum topic.
You can grab a hold of the complete X-Crafts ERJ Family over at the X-Plane.org store for a price of $89.95 (Excl. VAT). All variants included in the ERJ Family pack can also be purchased separately at $49.95 (Excl. VAT) each here.
AIRCRAFT RELATED CHANGES
- Modified flight models to fly with nose up attitude (1-2 degrees up) on approach (around 120-115 knots)
- Modified flight models to fly at M0.78 with CRZ TRS mode engaged.
- Spool Up slowed down
- Spool Down slowed down
- Throttles are less responsive
- Modified fuel consumption to match closer real-life performance
- Less tire friction so the planes need less thrust to start moving
- Fixed CRS Needle offset
- Fixed Fuel page on Legacy had FWD and VENTRAL mixed
- Changed the dome light pitch so it illuminates the overhead panel more.
- Fixed GPU voltage was showing wrong values
- Fixed overlapping EICAS messages
- Fixed Ventral Tank on XR showing zero fuel
- Tried to eliminate Caution light going off at random moments, however as I couldn’t replicate it myself it might still be happening to some users. This will be addressed in one of the future versions with a whole a custom system for Caution lights and EICAS messages.
- Added Landing Call outs Now its 500ft, 100ft, 50ft, 10ft.
- Shorter Aircraft Descriptions (for GHD compatibility)
- Corrected ICAO signs for E145 XR and Legacy
- Park brake now isn’t pulled when toe brakes are used
- Overspeed bar on PFD is red and goes all the way up
- Removed service door indication from legacy MFD system page
MODEL RELATED CHANGES
- Fixed NAV lights being illuminated while the switches were off
- The engines now both rotate in the same direction
- Remove before flight covers show up only after N1 is 0%
- Outer Spoilers deploy less than the inner ones
- Cabin Lights are now controllable (you can dim them or switch them on/off completely) from a FA control panel which is located next to the main door.
- Main door can also be closed from this same FA control panel
- Dome and chart holder lights were not actually lit when the light was illuminated.
- Fixed Pedestal panel lights being connected to the dome lights
- Removed the dummy avionics manipulator from the glareshield
- Removed easter egg manipulator which rotated the cabin from overhead panel, because in reality it’s supposed to be somewhere else!
- Removed service door manipulator in Legacy
- The altitude pressure knob goes to FL410 on Legacy and XR
- Tried to fix all little holes around the cockpit
- Fixed a tiny piece of the cabin sticking out above service door on the Legacy
- Change parking brake manipulator
- Added manipulators to the trim switches on the pedestal
- Opening the doors on the panel now also changes the door status on the ground menu
- FADEC switches have a default position at 12 o clock
- Added a click spot which swaps the 2 FMS units
TEXTURES
- Fixed some issues on the belly normal maps
- Some minor tweaks to the cockpit textures to make them blend in better.
- Fixed Speedbrake Textures
- Gear Up indicators on the EICAS are now white as on the real jets.
CHANGES BY STEVE:
- If you spawn a session in flight the avionics no longer go through a self test before being fully active
- Automatically remove the “remove before flight” elements permanently when the engines are started.
- The user can toggle them back on after shutting down the engines.
- Auto deploy spoilers on landing. (Note that speedbrake automation will be disabled if the user has the speedbrakes assigned to a joystick axis). Wheels must be spinning, groundspeed at or over 50 KIAS.
- Auto retract spoilers when throttle advanced past 50%.
- Initialize STAB DE-ICE in the ON condition for all startup situtations.
- Revised the X-Plane descriptions of a few of the custom commands for the autopilot.
- Revised the function of the autopilot toggle to properly control the yaw damper when necessary.
- Created new command: XCrafts/ERJ_parking_brake. This will set the toe brakes to “full on” as a replacement for the X-Plane “parking brake” and allow people to slow the aircraft without the parking brake handle animating.
SOUND CHANGES:
- Encoded in 5.1
- Highly modified exterior engines based on new recordings.
- Increased bass and volume of ground roll.
- Increased bass of interior engines.
- Increased Interior start slightly.
- Decreased coffee pot rattle (provided you are not standing in the galley).
- Added shutdown for interior/exterior engines.
- Added main gear retract bumps (only audible in cabin!).
- Smoothed transition from cockpit/cabin.
- Modified thrust reverse.
- 50 and 10 callouts added.
- Reduced bass on the interior and exterior reverse thrust.
- Lowered pitch of packs by 1st, also added a slight air noise to try to smooth the high pitch sound.
- Fixed overhead switches.
- Reduced volume, increased high pass of thrust reverse.
- Lowered pitch of avionic fans by 2st
- Added nose gear retract sound.
- Added mach scale high speed (mutes 322 kias warning and instead triggers at 0.785M).
- Changed trigger points for speed warning from 250/320 to 252/322.
- Changed logic on the gear horn. Now triggers with gear up when below 1260RA.
- Added triple-chime to gear horn.
- Added end caps to packs when using the bleed air switch to mask abrupt start/stop.
- Custom park brake now working.
- Nose gear extend sound added.
- Reduced galley cart distance.
- Reduced cockpit rattles.
- Fixed 50 and 10 callouts.
- Added additional checks for gear horn.
- Internal mixer placement for packs and nose gear (prevents them from being audible outside the plane).
[Editor’s Note: Apologies for the delay in publication]
