For the longest leg of my Christmas flight the guys at X-Crafts gave me a nice opportunity to preview their upcoming Embraer 195 v2…a gorgeous airplane with a very nice depth of systems. A full review, along with the E-175 v2, will be coming on the main site.
Images and features shown in this AAR are subject to change and are “works in progress” given the pre-release (beta) version of the E-195…
The E195, according to Embraer, has a maximum range of 2,300 nm - although that is the (AR - Advanced Range) version of the 195 (I’m not sure that the X-Crafts E195 is modeling that). Whatever the case, my flightplan is indicating around 2,422 nm from Rio (SBRJ) to Ushuaia (SAWH). Since we aren’t carrying passengers on this demo flight, I’m hopeful we can stretch the range to make it to our destination.
The FL390 winds forecast show we’ll be facing a quartering headwind most of the way, shifting to a direct crosswind averaging about 50 knots…
The beautiful X-Crafts E195 on the stand at Rio/Santos Dumont…getting full fuel…
To conserve fuel, I use the GPU to provide power while I go through the extensive process of loading the FMC, which for my untrained fingers takes about 10 minutes as I figure out the programming technique.
After a bit, we are down to the engine start checklist…from this point on we’ll be burning precious dead dinosaur sauce.
Taxiing out to 20L…the sparkling lights of Rio provide a nice ambiance…we have a special issuance to allow us to leave before curfew and we put the throttles forward at 0846Z with 28,219 lbs. of fuel onboard…
The E-195 climbs out with authority since we don’t have passengers aboard - we easily outclimb the cablecars that take tourists up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain…
As we depart the Rio terminal area, the sun is just peeking up over the eastern horizon…
Our initial climb takes us up to FL340 and we are climbing at Mach .61 and 2,300 FPM…
Our FMS shows our ETA and fuel remaining at each intermediate waypoint. Unfortunately, the chevrons listed for SAWH are showing we don’t have enough fuel to make it at this point of the flight…
They are going to need to wash this E-195 before making the delivery to Austrian Airlines…
With fuel burn a big concern since we are still showing zero fuel at SAWH, I make an attempt to climb to the max operating altitude of FL410. We creep up at a few hundred FPM in FLCH mode. Upon leveling out at FL410 we are at Mach .76 but burning 2,850 lbs. per side, which is actually worse than the 2,730 lbs. per side we were burning at FL390. The angle of attack is a few degrees higher and it just isn’t ready (weight-wise) to be at FL410. We drop back down to FL380 and fuel flow settles in at a much better 2,700 lbs. a side at Mach .75. Over the course of the flight, as fuel burns off and we get lighter, the power to maintain that Mach number slowly reduces. By the end of the six hour + flight we are burning closer to 2,200 lbs. per side per hour.
Leaving a bit of a contrail…
Our route takes us down the coast of Brazil and Argentina…
About two and a half hours into the flight - we finally break onto the positive side of the fuel remaining at SAWH. This is due in part to two factors: 1) The airplane is getting lighter with each pound of fuel burned, making less throttle required for the autothrottles to maintain the set Mach number and 2) Our course curves progressively more south throughout the 6 hours of flying, taking more and more of the headwind component out of the winds…
The E-195 cabin is obviously bigger than the E-175 cousin…
Crossing multiple big cities as we fly the major airways south…
The landclass gradually changes from jungle to fertile plains to more brownish desert looking areas further into Argentina…
Cloud cover increases as we head into southern Argentina…
Nervously watching the fuel remaining (4,450) over the FF/PPH readout. The plan is to stay at FL380 until only about 80 miles out to provide for a idle thrust descent all the way to the airport…
I think this was the Rio Gallegos area…
A quick look at the performance page shows our full flap Vref of 115 knots…
About 30 minutes out of Ushuaia, the master caution chimes and our low fuel status is shown on the EICAS…
I love the pop-out 2D panels on the X-Craft airplanes. Here we are passing over Rio Grande (SAWE) and getting ready to turn toward the final transition to intercept the ILS to runway 25 at Ushuaia…
Over Rio Grande, I take one 360 turn in a holding pattern to continue to bleed off altitude - my idle descent worked very well but I actually found myself too high and had to scrub off some altitude…
While flying the transition to the ILS we break out below the cloud deck - I’m relieved since I didn’t want to be forced to fly an ILS to minimums with no fuel available for much of a go-around…!
Intercepting the green needle ILS…the autopilot works flawlessly as we head down the flap schedule until we are about Vref + 10 on short final…
I love the 2D HUD view - I just wish it were also available in the 3D cockpit…but that might not be technically possible using the 2D data from X-Plane…
Touchdown - the brakes cycle automatically in the MED setting, the spoilers deploy, and I select idle reverse thrust to bring the E-195 to a stop…
The SAWH scenery package by Danitabaires is just stunning…
I love the way the marshaller wands you in and gives you the stop signal. I’m not sure why I’m getting the “negative” symbol here…guess he didn’t like my line-up…
Welcome to Ushuaia - 0846Z takeoff - 1512Z landing - fuel at start 28,219 lbs, fuel at shutdown 1,531 lbs…
Next stop - Rothera!
Once the offending missing .for file was created by duplicating a similarly-named other, we resumed from MYAN San Andros. Let’s say that one of the crew desperately wanted to see the location of his favorite 
