Type Regional Jet
CRJ900
Before the E175 wave, the Bombardier CRJ family carried regional America, and the CRJ900 still flies daily for PSA, Endeavor, and SkyWest under major-airline brands. Based on a stretched business-jet lineage, it sits low to the ground, boards fast, and gets out of short gates quickly.
Pilots describe the CRJ as a pilot's airplane: quick controls, a wing that likes speed, and approach handling that keeps you engaged. The cabin is tighter than the Embraer's and crews rib the type for it, but the left seat pays the same and the turbine time counts identically.
- Seats
- 76 in US scope config
- Engines
- Two GE CF34-8C5
- Cruise
- Mach .78 class
- Range
- About 1,500 nm
- Deck
- Collins Pro Line 4
- Role
- First airline type rating
Representative figures for the type. Model year and configuration move the numbers.
The Seat It Represents
CRJ operators hire on the same ATP timeline as every regional, and because the type competes with the E175 for pilots, carriers flying it often sweeten bonuses or upgrade speed. Endeavor's flow to Delta and PSA's to American mean a CRJ type rating can be a scheduled stop on the way to a major, not a detour.
Training runs the standard airline pattern: systems ground school, full-motion simulator, type rating checkride, then initial operating experience on the line. Winter CRJ flying into the northeast will teach you more about real-world jet operations than any textbook printed.
Student Questions, Answered
Should I avoid CRJ operators since the fleet is older?
No. Take the first class date a quality regional offers; seniority compounds and fleet plans change. Pilots who waited six months for a 'better' fleet assignment gave away six months of upgrades, bidding power, and flow-line position.
Is the CRJ harder to fly than the Embraer?
Crews call it more hands-on: higher approach speeds, a wing that wants energy managed properly. That reputation builds exactly the instrument and energy discipline majors interview for, so treat it as a feature.
What does winter CRJ flying actually teach?
De-ice procedures, contaminated-runway math, holding fuel decisions, and diversion judgment, several times a week, for real. A northeast CRJ winter is the densest jet experience a new first officer can log anywhere.
Where It Fits On Your Path
Same career rung as the E175, different flavor. If the regional hiring you falls into a CRJ base, take the seat; the seniority number matters more than the fuselage.
The Other First Jet
The CRJ900 stretches a business-jet lineage into airline service, and pilots feel the ancestry: a slimmer cabin, higher approach speeds than its Embraer rival, and hand-flying qualities that veterans of the type defend with real affection. It rewards precision, which is exactly what a new first officer needs to build, and CRJ-trained pilots carry a reputation for crisp energy management into every later fleet.
Career-wise the CRJ story is a transition story: the type still flies significant schedules at several regionals, but retirement curves favor the E175 across the industry, so students should read fleet plans rather than assume. That's not a mark against the airplane; type ratings are airline-paid either way, and thousands of current major-airline captains logged their first turbine PIC in a CRJ. If your regional assigns you one, you're inheriting the jet that taught a generation the trade.
Ask pilots who moved from the CRJ to bigger equipment what the airplane left in their hands and the answers converge on energy management. The CRJ's wing likes speed and its approach profile punishes procrastination, so crews learn to plan descents miles further out than trainer habits suggest, and that discipline transfers everywhere: 737 captains who came up on CRJs still brag about their descent planning decades later. There's also a professional-culture inheritance; CRJ operations kept crews busy with old-school workload, less automation babysitting, more flying, and alumni carry a certain unbothered competence into every subsequent fleet. If the type appears in your career, take the education it offers. It ages into a credential.
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