It’s been a couple of weeks since Aerosoft’s CRJ V2 was released for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The long awaited update is finally here but does this update provide the quality experience that the original set out to but didn’t quite accomplish? I set out to try and find that out and here are my experiences so far.

The good, the bad and the ugly of the CRJ of old

Aerosoft were the first on the block to offer up a relatively high end simulation of an airliner in MSFS 2020. In those early days, we had few options with the default airliners leaving most dedicated airliner fans wanting. The CRJ came out well ahead of the rest of the competition, months and years ahead of PMDG and Fenix’s offerings as an example. Being first can be a good thing, however, development by Aerosoft on the aircraft stopped after just a few updates and long standing issues were left hanging for years. Frankly, it felt like an opportunity squandered.

In the intervening years, we would occasionally hear about a planned update from the aircraft’s lead developer, Hans Hartmann (who also did the ATR for Microsoft/Asobo), though they were often short updates and nothing ever really seemed to come of it. Presumably, Hans was also doing several projects for Microsoft and the 2024 launch put the CRJ on the back burner. With the slate finally cleared of other tasks, it looks like Hans was as good as his word as this V2 has now arrived into the sim.

When I reviewed the type last year, I noted the airliner’s many pros and cons with good performance, looks, and a reasonably solid systems simulation brought down by several serious showstopping bugs other unresolved issues. One of the worst issues that I experienced, entering an RNAV approach would cause the FMC and then the rest of the airplane to lock-up (what we now know to be called a WASM crash). The sim itself would continue to function but the airplane was frozen and nothing would work on it. That bug was left hanging for years and it along with other issues caused many to have second thoughts.

Some of that might be behind us as CRJ V2 has emerged!

What has changed?

Aerosoft have provided a lengthy change log for the CRJ V2 (copied from their Discord and repeated in this article here). Quite a few systems on the aircraft have been tweaked and adjusted. There’s improvements to the autopilot, there’s a new autotune for the ILS system, all kinds of systems are reportedly better simulated including a new INS + GPS simulation, there are new LOD levels for the 3D model, and multiple WASM crashes have been fixed.

The cockpit has seen some reworking with better materials and textures in places. It wasn’t a bad cockpit before but it looks slightly better overall now.

The cabin area is, in particular, a big change as the prior version had a very basic one that was really only meant to be viewed from the outside. This time around, its at more or less the same quality as the rest of the airplane and quite competitive with the other airliners in the sim. The aircraft gets seatback entertainment units representing some of the fancier CRJs in the fleet. This is a significant visual update.

The exterior doesn’t appear to have changed much at all but it was never a weak spot of the CRJ previously. It sported great modeling and solid texture work all around. I’d put it behind some of the best products out there but its better than average.

Sounds haven’t changed or haven’t changed in any way that I could detect or note. They are adequate though not nearly as punchy as I’d like. Some folks like to buy the separate add-on from Boris Audio Works to boost the audio experience.

My first outing in it was a disaster

Prior to writing this piece, I ended up taking the aircraft on five different flights. But I nearly exited out after the first one because it really didn’t go well.

The flight was a Lufthansa City flight from Prague, Czech Republic to Frankfurt, Germany. Everything was fine at first until I got the aircraft into a situation where it was about to stall. CRJ’s autopilot has always been a bit weird so my instinct was to go off of autopilot and try and get the airplane into a better speed range. Coming out of autopilot caused an immediate spin stall… one that just didn’t feel deserved. It didn’t develop, it just snapped into it. Now admittedly, the reason I got there was pilot error but the actual feeling of the stall wasn’t satisfying and felt artificial in a way that I haven’t seen in this sim series in a long time.

Recovery was just as confounding. I undoubtedly tried to recover too quickly but the aircraft snapped and stalled again. Eventually, I was able to recover but only after losing over 15,000 feet of altitude (and no doubt several dinners from the virtual passengers onboard). Yikes!

Having regained my composure, I was climbing back up in a much smarter climb (Speed mode is the recommended climb method). This time I ran into one of those classic WASM crashs. I’m not actually sure what caused it because I was just cruising in the airplane but something clearly went wrong behind the scenes and aircraft’s systems and operation was all frozen. It was still moving forward but it was essentially a dead airplane. I exited out with some frustration.

Better times ahead

I could have left it at that but I felt like there were too many weird things going on that night that I just had to try it again.

My second flight was an Air Canada Express from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (KDTW) to Toronto Pearson International (CYYZ). This one went much better! After fighting with the tug to get it to push me back for a bit, I eventually got myself taxiing and taking off from Detroit on my way to Toronto. This was a great flight with some nice upper level clouds to surf over. Then a bit of a cloudy and hazy descent into Toronto. Managed to land it at Toronto with a beautiful touchdown.

Then I did a United CRJ flight from KCRW Yeager International Airport up to Chicago O’Hare (KORD). This one started out great but after only a few minutes into my flight I learned, thanks to the tremendous noise, that the RAT (the CRJ calls it the ADG or air driven generator) deployed for no apparent reason. It’s not retractable once deployed without being on the ground. Also, its loud… so I wasn’t going to put up with that. So, that was a restart for me. The second time around was fine with no unusual deployment and I had a beautiful evening flight into Chicago.

I did yet another flight putting me back in the CRJ 900 going from Copenhagen (EKCH) up to Tallinn (EETN) with an SAS liveried CRJ. That flight went perfectly with no glitches or issues whatsoever and by that point I was feeling pretty good with the CRJ.

I even made some adjustments to my flight plan midway through with out any issues. This is the flight that I finally got the courage to check and see if the RNAV crash was fixed – it was! Evening arrival into Tallin making use of the HUD on this one. This evening flight was by far the most beautiful that I flew!

My final flight was a Delta Connection CRJ700 flying from Milwaukee (KMKE) to Detroit (KDTW). This was another smooth functioning flight with everything going the way it should and the aircraft systems operating normally. It was one of my worst landings in the jet but aside from that the actual aircraft did what I thought it was supposed to.

The good points

There’s a lot to like about the Aerosoft CRJ. Despite the issues, it is a reasonably good simulation of the airplane with good systems depth and functionality. There’s enough quirks that I can’t give it top marks but it is reasonably good and you can do all of the flight planning, systems interactions, and general operations bits and pieces that you’d expect from a mid to high fidelity airliner. It’s not at Fenix, PMDG, Just Flight or iniBuilds level but its a notch under that.

This remains one of the best performing airliners in the sim when it comes to frame rates. It generally spits out top notch frame rates and there are few if any performance glitches while using it.

The autopilot is, though not perfect, much improved from the general unreliability of the old one. I found it very unreliable before and now its somewhat better. The weird stall/spin experience on the first flight not withstanding, it generally behaved itself and had fewer weird things than it did in earlier versions. It still struggles to figure out tightly grouped waypoints and I found myself using heading mode here quite a bit.

This is a bit of a hands on experience too. The CRJ does not have an auto throttle and the VNAV is an advisory mode only so you have to do a bit of extra work to get everything just right. The aircraft’s supercritical wing and flight model in general mean that you need to stay ahead of the jet at all times. It’s a bit of a sports car in performance but its just as temperamental as one too.

That leads me to mention too that the handling of the jet is somewhat improved. I’ve heard that more work is being put in there and that we may see further improvements in another update but it does already feel a little better than it used to while hand flying. Taxiing it and the takeoff roll are both quite a bit better than they used to be too.

Visually it remains a solid contender. Again, its not the best in its category but its reasonably good with strong modeling and texture work. It holds up under close inspection. The cockpit has seen a bit of work done to it and its quite a decent looking cockpit overall but you also don’t see any real frills here. The lighting is generally good though the back light controls seem to jump to at least half brightness at 10% and by 50% are no longer doing anything more. Minor gripes aside, its a more than adequate cockpit with overall good art design.

Some issues remain

The biggest issue I have right now is that I just don’t know what kind of flight I’m going to have with the CRJ. Is it going to perform flawlessly with great frame rates and no system glitches whatsoever or is something weird going to happen that I can’t explain? Or, maybe is it simply going to have a WASM crash and stop functioning?

The more flights that are normal that I get in, the more data points that I have that its generally ok but there’s this dark cloud that’s hanging over it for me right now.

Despite the autopilot being improved quite a bit, the two big issues I had with it (recounted above) were the weird autopilot disconnect into instant snap roll and stall as well as the general inability to stay on course when waypoints are close together. That second issue is easily mitigated with heading holds and smart management of the aircraft but I’m just not sure if this is something that plagues the real aircraft or not.

One other issue not brought up yet, virtually every airliner I have in the sim will work with hardware bound controls. Adjusting altitude, heading, speed, and airbrakes all work on the iniBuilds A300-600R(F), the PMDG 737NG series, the Just Flight F28, the Asobo/Microsoft ATR 42/72-600 and so forth. With the CRJ, only the heading can be controlled via hardware… not the others. Did they forget to connect the rest of them? It’s a weird omission.

Final thoughts

Aerosoft’s CRJ V2 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 makes significant progress toward solving many longstanding bugs and issues with the jet and remedying various deficiencies with the earlier release.

The company has also, smartly I think, decided to package the whole thing with all four variants into just one release for $50.99 USD. It was just a little too expensive before for what it offered the four variants and several dozen liveries all packaged into one complete experience for a little bit less than they were charging for the bundle previously.

Since the review last year, I’m much more encouraged overall with the CRJ V2. I can offer a cautious recommendation to potential purchasers. It’s not a flawless product and some of the inconsistent crashing and weirdness that I’ve had make me wonder if there are still some bugs to hammer out. Should there be a few more updates and improvements made, I think that cautious recommendation will slowly climb towards a more complete one.

Pick the CRJ if you like short haul jet flying with a medium to high fidelity airliner experience that has good system depth and quite a bit of hands on action throughout the flight.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this. If Aerosoft can release some further fixes and adjustments to solve lingering issues, I think this can be a solid recommendation for those interested in regional jets. Aerosoft CRJ V2 can be purchased for MSFS 2020 and 2024 on the company’s website or through the Marketplace.