Originally Posted by
overspeed
When you're starting out, you basically have to guess at a power setting that will give you the speed you're supposed to fly. After a while, it becomes intuitive. Watch the captains you fly with. Mimic the ones that do it well.
Don't know if this works on the CRJ, but for the 145 if you're looking for a specific speed, just halve the the airspeed, add a zero, and set that as your fuel flow.
Example: You're level at 8K cruising along and trying to maintain 250 knots. Set the thrust levers so each fuel flow reads 1250 pph (250/2=125 then add the zero). If you wanted to maintain 210 knots, use 1050 pph.
It works at all altitudes, but it's more accurate at lower altitudes (say, below 15K). Also, when you descend, if you want to maintain that speed, drop the power 400pph for each 1,000fpm (i.e. for a 1500fpm descent, drop the power back 600pph). You'll have to bump the thrust levers forward as you descend though to maintain that fuel flow. Takes a lot of the "guesswork" out of it though.