After a few months absence......
Why the ERJ145?
Apart from being a very succesfull regional jet, I suppose all sim builders have a base for their desire - in my case, being a frequent flyer for work, it was based on the idea in 2003 when I was living in Lisbon, and fying with Portugalia in the 145 most weeks. My idea was helped by Peter Cos of FDS, who at the time had a EMB 120 Brasilia shell as a hobby project, and was offering a series of panels.
Luckily for Peter, and sadly for the ERJ fans, FDS began to rapidly expand, and Peter had to abandon his project to cope with the demand for the increasingly popular B737NG and Airbus products, and a huge increase in orders for Pro products. However, he was faithfull to the few existing customers for the ERJ, and, after a couple of people fell out of the race for various reasons, we ended as two customers with a full set of panels. I am one, and my friend Marco Fernandes, a Brazilian pilot working in the US (Jungle Jet) is the other.
However, I have seen over the last few years a tremendous effort by other ERJ builders with home made panels, shells, and excelent projects - so take heart!
If you really think the ERJ is for you, we will do our best to help you with your project via our pages.
After almost a year, work has begun again on the sim.
Given the scale of the work, I decided to call it at a restoration, rather than a rebuild, as over the past few days I have discovered that there is more to putting the parts back together than at first meets the eye.
I have also taken a fresh look at the website, and have deleted some of the unfinished content relating to things not sim related. I´ve gone back to the book format, which is more in keeping with the saga this has become, rather than a more modern look - that I will leave for the kids websites!
I have also added a forum section, which will hopefully make it easier for me to answer the questions left on the guestbook page, and although I won´t be checking every day, I´ll get back to you as soon as work allows.
I have also added a page (The dimensions page) with the excellent photos kindly given to me by Dieter Jakob, owner of Routech showing two real aircraft cockpits with a tape measure giving much needed dimensions.
As this site, like the sim, is still under construction, please forgive mistakes and omissions.
