Upcoming EFB

[Flypops]

OK,I finally got the PMDG 737 CDU to open up on my IPAD in MSFS. The AVIAWorx works great. The set up is not too straight forward.
I bought the product and downloaded the AVASERVER and it creates an icon on my desktop. I was clicking on the ICON and nothing happened. The step I missed is it opened up the AVIA app in tray (which is hidden) Once I realized it was there, I activated the license. Got the HTTP:// address, started MSFS PMDG plane and then put that http:// link into my ipad and it works great. So if anyone gets stuck, read it here. There is only 1 Youtube video on the I found and it is in French - no help to me!

Now use that URL in your browser to create a shortcut on your iPad. Then all you ever need to do is start the App on your PC and click the shortcut and you are there. This is the only 3rd party app that I run that works 100% of the time.

[Paulyg123]

OK,I finally got the PMDG 737 CDU to open up on my IPAD in MSFS. The AVIAWorx works great. The set up is not too straight forward.
I bought the product and downloaded the AVASERVER and it creates an icon on my desktop. I was clicking on the ICON and nothing happened. The step I missed is it opened up the AVIA app in tray (which is hidden) Once I realized it was there, I activated the license. Got the HTTP:// address, started MSFS PMDG plane and then put that http:// link into my ipad and it works great. So if anyone gets stuck, read it here. There is only 1 Youtube video on the I found and it is in French - no help to me!

[DDowns]

Besides, everything should already be set up with radios, etc., before starting the approach. May a freq change from approach to tower but that is pretty early if not before final approach.

[Captain Kevin]

Kevin while we wait for the T7 which long aircraft for msfs would you recommend?

No clue, I'm not even running MSFS at the moment because I don't have anything to fly. Only airplanes I fly in P3D are PMDG 747, 777, and 737.

How do you manage to change the radios or enter in information in the FMC while hand flying an approach (no auto-pilot)? I have to scroll down to the FMC and take my eye off the outside view - and sometimes I find I am in a nose dive. Having the FMC/EFB with keypad as a pop up was kind of valuable to me. Or am I missing something?

As far as the radio, I just rotate my head and look down at the radio panel, switch to whatever frequency I need to switch to with my right hand, and hit the button.

[MJChernis]

Highly recommended! Particularly helpful because you can control all the ground ops from it when using the external view. Relatively inexpensive too.

[Flypops]

I saw in a similar post that people use AVIAworx to get the FMC on an I-pad. I may just buy it and test it out.

You will not regret this. I was able to snag 2 10" Android tablets for $50 ea. about a year ago and I have them mounted on top of my Alpha and Bravo units. I use the Aviaworx for the FMC on the Alpha tablet and then use Air Manager with the 737 radio stack (via SpaceDesk) on the Bravo mounted tablet and the functionality between the two is outstanding, with the rare exception when the SpaceDesk app crashes and causes my PC to completely freeze and I have to do a forced hard reset . (But that's a whole different story.)

[DrVenkman]

I hope the EFB can be dragged to a 2nd monitor or I-pad. Let me ask this to you all:
How do you manage to change the radios or enter in information in the FMC while hand flying an approach (no auto-pilot)? I have to scroll down to the FMC and take my eye off the outside view - and sometimes I find I am in a nose dive. Having the FMC/EFB with keypad as a pop up was kind of valuable to me. Or am I missing something?

Head-tracker to glance down for the FMC if necessary; I use my external Logitech radio panel for radios/nav/transponder.

[Kevin Hall]

I hope the EFB can be dragged to a 2nd monitor or I-pad. Let me ask this to you all:
How do you manage to change the radios or enter in information in the FMC while hand flying an approach (no auto-pilot)? I have to scroll down to the FMC and take my eye off the outside view - and sometimes I find I am in a nose dive. Having the FMC/EFB with keypad as a pop up was kind of valuable to me. Or am I missing something?

I set the radios up in advance so the most I'll have to do is switch between a VOR frequency and an ILS using the transfer switch.

Like you, I miss being able to popup the FMC CDU, but if you learn what preset view key (Ctrl plus a number) switches the view to the CDU it's quick to switch to that then back to the pilot view. Still not something I'd want to do on a hand flown approach though, so it's best to set the FMC up as much as you can before and during descent.

[Paulyg123]

I saw in a similar post that people use AVIAworx to get the FMC on an I-pad. I may just buy it and test it out.

[WebMaximus]

The newly released FS2Crew for the PMDG 737 in MSFS could also be a very good option to get some realistic help managing these kind of things. As we all know, people don't act as PF and PM at the same time in a 737 IRL...

[Ephedrin]

I'm not Kevin but have a look at the A310.

[Ephedrin]

I hope the EFB can be dragged to a 2nd monitor or I-pad. Let me ask this to you all:
How do you manage to change the radios or enter in information in the FMC while hand flying an approach (no auto-pilot)? I have to scroll down to the FMC and take my eye off the outside view - and sometimes I find I am in a nose dive. Having the FMC/EFB with keypad as a pop up was kind of valuable to me. Or am I missing something?

I either don't handfly if I have still stuff to do in the FMC or I simply look down with TrackIR, lock the picture with a mouse side button, click click, unlock, continue flying.

Radios are easier, just look down and use the mouse wheel, look up and check, look down again and scroll the other knob.

I hope the EFB can be dragged to a 2nd monitor or I-pad

unlikely with how it works in MSFS. Maybe a second monitor, but don't count on it.

[Paulyg123]

I hope the EFB can be dragged to a 2nd monitor or I-pad. Let me ask this to you all:
How do you manage to change the radios or enter in information in the FMC while hand flying an approach (no auto-pilot)? I have to scroll down to the FMC and take my eye off the outside view - and sometimes I find I am in a nose dive. Having the FMC/EFB with keypad as a pop up was kind of valuable to me. Or am I missing something?

[Ernani Ferreira]

Kevin while we wait for the T7 which long aircraft for msfs would you recommend?

[Captain Kevin]

I'm puzzled with the fascination of autopilots like you can just steer the plane right and use the AT? It's still a complete plane without it right? Back in the day I used to fly without one!

On a flight that's short enough, I'll certainly fly it without the autopilot. Certainly not for a 4-hour flight, and definitely not for a 14-hour flight.

[VBHB]

I'm puzzled with the fascination of autopilots like you can just steer the plane right and use the AT? It's still a complete plane without it right? Back in the day I used to fly without one!

Anyways my credit still unspent waiting waiting....

[VBHB]

Nevermind.

[EvgenyK]

I would bet more on Easter

Without specifying a year it's does not count 😁

[Ernani Ferreira]

I would bet more on Easter

[WebMaximus]

Was hoping for an EFB for Christmas but maybe for new year then

[TB500]

I like that instead of admitting that it is something that everybody wants and that is already a standart (thanks to other developers like Fenix) you just try to talk it down like "Uuuh I dont need it" "I dont like Fenix or their tablet" "The way it is now is much better"

[Stearmandriver]

Yes but whenever it is ready, unless Asobo hands devs a prebuilt wx radar picture (which is unlikely and not desirable anyway since then every aircraft would unrealistically have the exact same weather picture regardless of radar installed) devs still have to build it into a picture and integrate it into a working radar unit.

So, very much "partially." PMDG will have work to do as well, before you can turn on the radar in the 737.

[Crabby]

Nothing partial about it. Asobo still has issues with performance on 3rd party planes. There is a ton of info about this. No one is going to integrate a performance killer.

[threegreen]

I'm all for including options. And I do understand PMDG's decision to prioritize the EFB, as the community is kind of demanding it and it's good business to give your customers what they want.

I guess I'm mostly expressing surprise at the community position itself, that seems to regard something like an EFB as important while there are still some basics of the simulation to nail down.

Also fair points.

I've seen comments myself that equated no EFB = addon has no value and I've parked it. Nothing wrong with that as it's personal preference, but I too raise my eyebrows about that sentiment. I'm immensely enjoying the 737 in MSFS as I have in P3D. But I do admit the lack of EFB is troublesome for someone such as me flying in VR and I would guess it adds quite some value to pancake mode as well. I still remember when FSL released their EFB for their Airbus and I could finally stop peeking onto the screen from under the VR headset to see the charts. The MSFS panel for Navigraph charts works but just doesn't cut it for me.

I hear you regarding the things you listed and they are of higher importance than an EFB, I agree, especially since I like to hand fly myself and the F/D, although better now with LNAV 2.0, isn't always that helpful. I'm mostly surprised about the way of argumentation that tends to become outright weird with arguments like planes can actually fly without EFBs, as if it's more than just a handful of comments here and there actually suggesting that, while simultaneously dismissing an EFB like it has no value whatsoever with people even suggesting it doesn't serve any real purpose IRL other than look nice. Bit strange if you ask me.

We got LNAV 2.0 and several other updates including a second release with the third imminent, so I like to assume EFB development doesn't shift too many resources away from more important areas.

[mmminez]

Hey Everybody-

I think we will begin showing you our universal flight tablet about mid-september-ish. It will have many of the features we use in real life, adapted, of course, to simming in the forum of SimBrief and Navigraph. We are in the process of working through the Operational Performance Tool, being very careful to avoid infringing on the intellectual property of the many real-world vendors providing such capabilities- as this would be easy to do given our familiarity with them from actual operations.

None of what will be provided is "new" to PMDG products per-se, as our P3D product line has implementations of the Class I and Clas III EFBs provided in the 737, 747 and 777 aircraft- so to those who might be thinking "oh this is new territory for PMDG" it really isn't. We have simply decided to move a bunch of our Options and Setup capabilities from the FMS menus to the tablet, and this meant departing from the classic (and very tired) Boeing EFB design that was originally included.

I am just guessing at this point, but I think the tablet will be made operational for you in October or so... Possibly sooner, possibly later... It just depends upon how long it takes to amalgamate all of the performance data once we have the operational flight planning tool implemented in this new format.

Will we be able to mirror the EFB to our personal iPad/Android/tablet of choice without the use of any third party software?

[Stearmandriver]

Cabin lights? How about the flight deck clocks!? 😁

[Floridaman]

Will you be able to dim the cabin lights finally from the EFB??

Brian J.

[Furioken]

But exactly there is the difference between the customers of Flight Sim Products. You prefer, like myself, a perfect reconstruction of the real Aircraft in the sim. But there are many many people who couldn't care less about something like a bit of overspeed. All they want to do is recreate some irl flights with all the planning and the other fuzz. I really dont think most pmdg customers really use the failures or understand how the systems really work. Its just not important to know if you only want to get from A to B. The EFB, as seen in the Fenix A320, makes this kind of Simming really easy and enjoyable for those who like it. I can totally understand the high demand the EFB is getting and even though i'd like to see fixes to the things you mentioned, i also really want the EFB .
Also speaking of the perf calculator, thats an integral part of departure planning and i personally dont want to pay for an extra tool, like many others.

[Stearmandriver]

I personally find it strange how there seems to always be some sort of movement against EFBs whenever people post about it. Obviously, it's not the most important area of focus for an airplane addon and you perfectly get the aircraft flying without one. It's fine if one doesn't need it, but there's not a single argument against it since it either doesn't change your way of simming or it changes it a lot and I would bet it changes for the better for most people.

A fair point. I think a lot of it is just the lack of nuance inherent in forum comms; discussions tend to develop along black-or-white, this-or-that lines.

For those of us suggesting that the EFB isn't that important, I think the real point is that we question its prioritization at this stage of development. There seems to be an attitude on the forum that an EFB is a basic bit of functionality that simply must be present in a modern airliner.

It isn't. But there ARE other basic functionalities that ARE required in order to have a realistic simulation of a 737NG, that are still missing here. Some examples:

- the aircraft still can't use ARINC 424 data / can't fly RF legs. The LNAV 2.0 is an improvement to the pseudo-waypoint approach, but not correct. The aircraft still deviates from its computed lateral track, re-calculations still occur at each pseudo-waypoint, and the roll mode flight guidance bangs from side to side.
- VNAV is similarly sloppy. It routinely overspeeds a climb speed in VNAV SPD, and it routinely blows a level-off by several hundred feet.
- selected lateral mode routinely drops and must be re-selected during a missed approach.
Etc. Then there are optional features that aren't exactly required for a 73, but if present should work - like the HUD AIII mode for instance.

And then, below all of that stuff that actually pertains to the basic operation of the aircraft being simulated, is where I would personally place items that don't actually relate to a simulation of the aircraft itself but rather to a simulation of user experience while operating the aircraft. I'm not saying that user experience isn't important, but the aircraft itself has to function correctly first, right? Otherwise what are you simulating?

The EFB doesn't actually add any functionality that can't already be accomplished (well, maybe a perf calculator but let's face it, that'll only ever be an approximation anyway).. but something like proper RF legs and smooth flight guidance that can actually be used to handfly... now THAT does.

The standard line we hear from devs is that dedicating resources to A doesn't necessarily mean they're being taken away from B... but let's face it, in a small development house (pretty much the entirely of the flight sim world), it kind of does. If the EFB were done tomorrow, it isn't as if the folks working on it would just disappear; they'd go on to work on something else, right?

I'm all for including options. And I do understand PMDG's decision to prioritize the EFB, as the community is kind of demanding it and it's good business to give your customers what they want.

I guess I'm mostly expressing surprise at the community position itself, that seems to regard something like an EFB as important while there are still some basics of the simulation to nail down.

[Stearmandriver]

Crabby well, partially. But it's not as if we'll have weather radar the instant SU10 drops. That update makes it possible, but then devs still have to actually build it into their products.