GC
It not an illusion the jet comfort it is jet comfort because its a jet, the FMS is ok no worse than any others that I have flown with and has some features that I wish were on the type I'm flying now. Cat III I think you will find that the 145's ordered by Crossair are Cat III capable. For its size the 145 is not difficult to land, a bit tricky in a strong X wind, but then again what acft is easy to land when its gusting 30 knots accross the runway. The company I operatted with had good reliability with them in four + years I can only remember dropping one or two sectors and the 145 was always top of the reliability stats at the end of each month. Never needed reverse even in the wet, the only stopping problem I heard about was on a wet rubber contaminated concrete runway. If Embraer hadn't rushed the acft into service and had done further performance tests then the acft wouldn't have been so runway limited. IMHO of 25+ years flying on a dozen or so different types the EMB145 is a delight to fly and operate, whether or not it is built rugged enough to be around for 20 years, will be interesting to see. For those who like it its a great acft for those who moan about it probably moan about most things.
Cheers.
BFF.