Happened to be surfing around as the sad man I am and could not help but make a contribution. I am an Airbus Training Captain, and unashamedly love the beast. I do, however, recognise that the new Emb 195 and all its various offshoots are fine beasts too. I was on holiday in Egypt last year and got a brief flight deck visit and thought how good it looked. It does not have the sophisticated fly-by-wire stuff of the Airbus, but it has some magic little gizmos to entertain the crowds to offset that. I would really love to meet someone who has flown both to hear a genunine and insightful comparison. I do not include a previous contributor here who felt that having been an engineer on an Airbus he could make valid comparisons - he is simply not qualified to make the assertions he has done about the Embraer being everything the Airbus should have been. No doubt in time others will appear who have flown both, but generally speaking I would expect the journey between Embraer and Airbus to be one-way traffic. Nonetheless, it is clearly a very nice aircraft that I do not knock in any way. I would go as far as to say I would thoroughly enjoy flying it. However.....
The contributors here are missing the key point which is this - it is a completely worthless type rating! Why? Because no one else uses it (no one else I would wish to work for that is!). Please do not be insulted by that, but it is absolutely critical for young pilots to understand how vital 'useful' type-ratings are. I do not have a 737 rating, for example, and think it is a really old-fashioned and dreadful old machine. I do, however, genuinely wish I was rated on it. Why? Security, security, security! That is the key. When times get hard, as they are surely about to, being unemployed with an Embraer rating will be as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Until you have a Boeing or Airbus rating you are vulnerable - it is that simple. Again, please do not be insulted and hear what I am saying. I am not saying that the Embraer is rubbish or something similarly crass - I am saying that the rating is really of little value if you want safety in your career. The longer you fly the thing, the further away from a Boeing or an Airbus you are and the more tied to FlyBe you become. Great if you want to be a FlyBe TRE or whatever - disastrous if something goes wrong there. Five thousand hours on an Embraer will simply not cut it when you are up against guys with five thousand hours on a Boeing or an Airbus. Harsh - but absolutely true.
In short, the Embraer may be magnificent to fly - personally I prefer the Airbus, but that is irrelevant. What matters is future employability. You need an Airbus or a Boeing on your licence and the longer you leave it to get one the more vulnerable you become to downturns in the market. So my advice is this, get out of there as quickly as you can to take up a job that gives you the Boeing or Airbus rating. Nobody is debating whether the Embraer is or is not a good aircraft - what I am saying is that it is the wrong aircraft for a UK-based pilot to be rated on long term. Love it or hate it, Boeing or Airbus is where it is at. Sorry folks but that is the way it is.
Answers on a postcard please...
Last edited by Norman Stanley Fletcher; 3rd Jul 2008 at 09:45.