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Wilco's Legacy 600 addon is available for FS2004 and FSX and was developed by FeelThere - the package being part of the publisher's 'Luxury Aircraft Collection', which means that it is aimed at more advanced simmers and features more comprehensive systems simulation than their 'Fleet Level' addons, which are developed with beginners and casual simmers in mind. System requirements are given as Microsoft Flight Simulator X or 2004, at least a 1.4 GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, a 32Mb video card, Windows XP or Vista (32 bit) and 350 Mb disk space. As usual, the spec is slight optimistic and to get anything approaching the best out of the product, I would recommend a 3.0 Ghz processor or faster under XP and a dual core under Vista, a 512 Mb video card, at least a gig of RAM under XP and two under Vista. I did the review on a 2.66 Ghz core2duo with 4 Gb of RAM, a 768 Mb GeForce 8800GTX, FSX SP1 and Vista and the addon definitely gave the system a thorough workout, with frame rates down into single figures on the threshold at KSEA at times and some slow skinning when the plane first loaded. When the installation is finished, a new program group appears on the Start Menu under the Wilco banner, containing links to a 60 page Pilot's Guide in English and French, a configuration utility, product registration and an uninstall routine. The config utility is a very simple app which allows you to tweak just about every aspect of the Legacy's operation, beginning with a choice of start state (cold and dark, ready for engine start, or engines running) and ending with IRS align time, with just about anything else you can think of taken care of in between. One thing you don't get that would be very useful, is an aircraft fuel and pax load applet. With FSX loaded, I found four different liveries for the Legacy installed, each in two different versions - one with 'eye candy' and one without, the latter being much more frame rate efficient. The visual model is extremely good, as I have come to expect from FeelThere (who developed the product). The hull is just right and packs in just about every detail you could wish for, right down to detailed interiors for the gear wells, as well as convincing views of the interior through the cockpit and cabin windows. All the usual animations are there, including opening cabin and baggage compartment doors. After that, things get more funky: with the doors opened and the parking brakes on, an animated flight attendant welcomes you at the top of the ramp; if the doors are closed and the plane is stationary or taxiing at less than 20 knots, she goes to the kitchen; at speeds above that, she takes her seat; and once you cross FL100, she gets on and does whatever it is that flight attendants do. Depending on which version of FS and the Legacy you are running, other animations include windshield wipers, flexing suspension, thrust reversers and a rope-lined walkway when the parking brake is on and the doors open. The liveries are excellent and all the textures are very crisp without any signs of blurring; and there is a painting kit included so that you can create more.
The addon includes both 2D and virtual cockpits (VC), the 2D panel being the better of the two, betraying the FS2004 origins of the addon; however, the VC isn't at all bad. What you get is a lot of glass, simulating the Legacy's advanced Honeywell digital avionics which is CAT II and III approach certified. The 2D panel has 8 subpanels: overhead, pedestal, flight management computer (FMC), cabin pressure, thrust management system, and enlarged versions of the primary flight display (PFD), multifunction display (MFD), and engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS). The 2D panel graphics and gauges are all first class and very readable right up to 1600 x 1200 - I just wish that every developer paid as much attention to cockpits as FeelThere do. If you aren't used to complex FS addons, the panel will look quite daunting and to be sure, there is a lot to learn, as many airliner simulations are less complicated to operate; only a small minority of the switches and buttons you can see in the shots are inoperative. The VC duplicates 90% of the operation of the 2D panel, but although the gauges are good, the panel graphic itself is less convincing with noticeable blurring at higher screen resolutions, but by way of compensation you get the best virtual cabin I have ever seen in an FS addon. The one big difference between the 2D panel and the VC is that you can fly the plane from the right hand seat in the VC - swapping is fast, thanks to the way the A key views have been set up. Embraer give you the works in the real plane and you get most of it in the sim, starting with color weather radar; a heads up display (HUD) that lets you do CAT III landings; a ground proximity warning system (GPWS); traffic avoidance (TCAS); simulation of the electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, pressurization system, bleed air, air conditioning, generators, full authority digital engine control (FADEC), and an autopilot with overspeed and stall recovery systems, but no autothrottle, as is the case with the real plane. You also get what Wilco refer to as an 'ultra realistic and very complete FMS' which truly does just about everything including allowing you to program holds, reads METARS and even learns your flying habits so that the fuel and ETA predictions become more accurate with use. Very fortunately, the ultra-realism doesn't extend to making it impossible to load FS flight plans into the unit as this is a great time saver, given that all that is usually left to do is enter the speeds and flight levels, but it is possible to build plans the hard way if you wish. I didn't find any significant bugs in the panels, which isn't surprising, given that the Legacy has its roots in the FeelThere ERJ-145 and that has been around for a long while now.
Normally, when a developer releases an addon of this complexity, they write manuals which tell you in extraordinary detail about how to do stuff like repressurise the braking system after a simulated failure, but leave out things you really need to know, like what needs to be done to get the plane off the ramp from cold and dark. The Legacy manual may be short compared to some I can think of, but it delivers the goods and is written from the point of view of a simmer who knows nothing about the plane and would like to do the most realistic start possible - I just wish more manuals were like this. Instead of drowning you in atmospheric, but ultimate useless reams of performance tables, FeelThere have taken the radical approach of just telling you how to operate the sim, with pictures of key switch sets. Okay, there are some honorable exceptions to this rule, but the number of sims I review that lack any form of tutorial telling users how to leave the ground without doing fourteen hours of homework is immense. This addon gives you all of that, but the problem with the Legacy manual is that having got you into the air, the author more or less abandons you to your fate and there is hardly anything, for example, about how to program the FMC beyond the details given in the tutorial, which will be a problem for all but the most experienced simmers. I guess we can always live in hope that there will be a second installment, because this is a very fully simulated unit and there isn't much that you can't do with it, but the trouble is that this Honeywell unit is very different to the ones fitted in Boeings, which is the baseline with which most big iron enthusiasts will be familiar. It is almost as if the author got airsick, because after making such a great start, the manual omits basic stuff like mentioning how to use the HUD, other than how to pop it up into view. 
The flight model is excellent, again as you might expect, given the long experience the developers have had with ERJ simulations. The Legacy lacks the fighter-like handing of the Lear, but it is by no means as tough to fly a good approach as the larger jets and it makes a good transition between the default Boeings and more comprehensive payware addons, given that by the time you have got your head around the avionics, there won't be much new under the sun and yet you don't have to spend hours learning how to get the thing back down again once your wheels have left the ground. The sound set, as has been the case in the past few FeelThere addons I have reviewed, is by SkySong and is about as comprehensive and as realistic as you could hope. Verdict? Nice addon, very comprehensive simulation which necessarily demands a high end system to run, shame the manual peters out after such a good start, can take or leave the virtual flight attendants, but I guess simmers under the age of ten will love 'em. But kidding aside, a great sim and with a more comprehensive manual it would have picked up an AAA.
Andrew Herd  Copyright © 2007 by FlightSim.Com. All Rights Reserved. |
mpresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, better known as Embraer, was formed nearly forty years ago in a joint venture with the Brazilain government. Based in Sao Paulo, its first product was the Bandeirante, a very successful low wing turboprop of which at least 500 examples were built, the majority of which went into service with commuter airlines in the US. Embraer went on to market several other turboprop designs, before beginning work on the EMB-145, a forty seat regional jet powered by twin rear mounted Allison turbofans - this went into production as the ERJ-145 and should be well known to flight simmers thanks to some excellent freeware. It rapidly became clear that there was considerable demand for a smaller version of the 145 and Embraer duly went to work and produced the ERJ-135, which seats 37. Some of these hulls went into service as corporate jets and so in mid-2000, Embraer decided to produce a dedicated business jet version of the 135, the Legacy.
