I’ve been meaning to write up a story that would catch us all up on the latest words and whispers surrounding Aerosoft’s CRJ series for Microsoft Flight Simulator and what it’s status might be for being updated for MSFS 2024. I was expecting to write about the rare updates and insights that we’ve seen over recent years, however, we have the first indications that something is actually happening with the project. This is what we know, what’s going going on and then I’ll editorialize about the whole situation at the end. Let’s have a look.

Cutting straight to the chase

The folks at FSElite are how I first found out that some new CRJ information had recently surfaced. The information is not from an official source but rather from a YouTube channel called YourSimCFI who appears to be a beta tester for the product. It is clear from the video that there have been upgrades to the cockpit, to the cabin area and to the EFB. These are certainly new to anyone with a release version so it does appear to be authentic.

The description and comments section help fill in a few details.

LNAV,VNAV,2024,LPV and more are all being worked on. To my knowledge This will update all CRJ 550/700 900/1000.

It’s not too hard to believe either as we knew that cabin and cockpit upgrades and other various changes were planned.

For the context on that, we go back to a post made by Hans Hartmann, the person behind much of the coding on the CRJ, who made this post back in October of 2023.

I promise you that there will be a CRJ update, although it will likely not be released before the end of the year, that it will be a major one, that it will include the much awaited LNAV/VNAV fixes as well as Simbrief, Navigraph Charts, an updated model with a detailed cabin and more.

Hans Hartmann on the Aerosoft forums

As it turns out, it wasn’t released in 2024 either. A lot of that may have something to do with his involvement with some other aircraft such as the significant updates made to the ATR for MSFS 2020 and 2024 and the DHC-6 for 2024. Those have probably helped keep the CRJ on the backburner for quite some time. Those updates have more or less been delivered so now hopefully opens a new opportunity for the CRJ to see some significant updates.

Unfortunately, this is all that we’ve got to go on at the moment.

Soapbox moment

Now I’ll move from news to a bit of editorializing because there’s a few things that I want to say about all of this.

Aerosoft and Hans chose well when they picked the CRJ. These smaller airliners are often the most fun that you can have and the mission of these craft tend to make shorter but realistic flight operations fun and approachable. The company was first out of the gate with a reasonably high fidelity airliner offering that was months and years ahead of the others and with that they should have cemented their place in the MSFS marketplace.

But it didn’t work out that way. Projects like these require maintenance over time. You don’t just deliver them and call it a day. Product delivery is only part of the project plan with the rest of the plan aimed at improving the product and ensuring status quo at a minimum as the sim platform changes. The CRJ did see a few fixes, yes, but it left long standing issues unsolved for several years and sporadic communication hasn’t helped. Those issues and the pros and cons of the airliner are something I covered in a semi-recent review.

Now, it looks like the long awaited updates and upgrades are indeed coming to this project. That is good news and I’m really happy about that. I also wish we had found out via an official update from Aerosoft with important questions answered rather than guessed at by a beta tester. They don’t have to tell us everything but being transparent and clear means less guessing, less mystery and more clear expectations for everyone.

By all means, work with beta testers and subject matter experts and people with YouTube channels (YourSimCFI appears to be all three, no fault to him!) to help get the word out… but don’t make it be the first way we find out about something with as troubled a reputation as this product. Any number of other communication plans could have been far more effective with a more powerful narrative. But this is what we’ve got for now and it leaves some questions unanswered and enough uncertainty for people to fill in their own blanks.

I’m happy about the CRJ returning, I’m happy to see it finally get updates, I hope those updates make it into what it was meant to be. I just wish this was handled better – again.