Combining these two great products, we are talking about more than 100 US bucks here.

Are both doing the same functionalities and I think PFPX doesn't have moving map?

 

Now, I have EFB and I will not fly my FSX without it. But what will PFPX do for me that EFB has not done it?

Enquiry mind wants to know........thanks

 

 

Kin M.

(KLAX-Moorpark 3 Arrival)

Combining these two great products, we are talking about more than 100 US bucks here.

Are both doing the same functionalities and I think PFPX doesn't have moving map?

 

Now, I have EFB and I will not fly my FSX without it. But what will PFPX do for me that EFB has not done it?

Enquiry mind wants to know........thanks

 

 

Kin M.

(KLAX-Moorpark 3 Arrival)

I have asked this same question as well. I have EFB but have not picked up PFPX yet. I would recommend you search youtube for a PFPX tutorial and you will see it for yourself. Its more of a one stop shop in creating a flight plan. It appears to making flight planning much much quicker. Also, it does fuel calculations. EFB doesn't do the flight planning. Instead it refers you to another website for a flight plan and I find it has a lot more additional steps in it. Also, EFB does not deal with the fuel at all. I thing PFPX is also taking into consideration things like wind that will impact the amount of fuel you will need. In a nutshell EFB will get you where you need to go, but PFPX will get you there in a realistic way and allow you to do fuel calculations so you can have the most realistic flight possible. I'm sure PFPX has a lot of other features that lets you modify your flightplan, but I don't know enough about it to go into further detail (it does suggest alternate airports to you etc). One question I do have for anyone who has PFPX though is can I run it on a secondary computer and do I need to have it running during the flight for any reason? 

Yeah, that's my problem is the fuel calculation which is sometimes off as you set it up on the PMDG777 CDU.

I do my flight planning using Flight Commander and get the real data from Flightaware. But flightware will only give you stuff that is flying in/out of Northern America. Then plug that flightplan to EFB to get the SID/STAR and moving map tracking. I need a flightplan that will provide correct fuel load using the weather factor and aircraft weight so i have enough fuel to land, especially on a 16 hours flight like OMDB to KLAX.

 

 

Kin M.

(Klax)

Also would like to know. I use efb for the Sid and star and the moving map. Wish pfpx could provide me with Sid and star based on the runway I wanna use.

Very good points from red259. The rough description would be that PFPX creates data whereas EFB only displays it with an option to alter it in regard to changing/looking at a STAR for example. So there's the combination of the planning soft with the electronic flight book. A book to look things up.

 

If people already run flight planners like FS Commander or FSBuild, you would gain planning details due to the combined data sources within PFPX. It's not really that you add a whole new ability. So you could say that, if you are ok with what your current planner gives you or what websites offer, you may not need PFPX.

 

Still, if you plan those ultra long flights, which I rarely do, I must admit, then PFPX might introduce a new level of accuracy if the plane profile (performance data) is offered and checked/calibrated. The reason for this improvement is that PFPX for example looks very closely on the weather given and exceeds the rough fuel calcs from e.g. FSC by far with the added detail on the plane's performance description. If you have detailed weather data (it brings a source for 12 months, but you can load your weather addon files too), it can check which flight level is best and also displays why.

 

Plane profiles. If you would not have a profile or a less accurate one or if your sim plane would just differ from what PFPX thinks how a 737 burns fuel, you will be off. More or less. But the fans will most likely supply such profiles while the program itself also offers quite some planes to chose from. My Q400 worked out of the box for example.

 

So this scenario might indeed offer a massive accuracy gain over current software or at least a thinner margin to a real-world dispatch solution. You can predict and plan step climbs and things. ETOPS planning would be a new item, same for re-dispatch. I don't think FSC or FSBuild offer that. At least I'm not aware of. Later, you can print your planning outcome (as valid as it may be) in a single file, with all the data in the format you like. Mind you, this could be a bunch of paper. Pdf printing advised. Trees saved

 

If those details haven't been of interest for you so far, jump some paragraphs up and perhaps stay with your current planner.

 

The auto routing in PFPX varies in quality. But I think some other members already stressed that even the auto routes from the commercial soft needs a human hand to help at times. You get some 9000 pre-planned routes out of the box though and the program even offers to check each one of them against current nav data. This takes a few minutes but you then see which ones are still valid. Predicting runways works and matches if the weather is your (stable) friend. Looking at weather data therefore is part of the auto-routing process.

 

Garbage in, garbage out. If one minds the data sources and checks them, PFPX should be very good at predictions. Now, weather predictions always incorporate imprecisions over time, so that's the only wonky element so to speak. Yeah, traffic and emergencies too. Sim pilots, pffft. ^_^ Wait, I'm one of them.

 

Operational questions.

One question I do have for anyone who has PFPX though is can I run it on a secondary computer and do I need to have it running during the flight for any reason?

I run it on two PCs and if I got the description right, this is allowed and also doesn't cause any activation limit triggers. The latter being a pet peeve of mine. Five individual systems can be activated as by this dev post. After that, hell breaks loose.    Nah, I think you then have to write why you are not Jack Sparrow or something.

 

I'm not planning to reach those limits but I think that every program start on an activated machine causes a short phase where the program goes online, downloads data and verifies your status. Modern times as it seems.

 

I saw some trouble being reported in the forums when it comes to activating the initial installation, but my two went fine and I can't really quantify the rest of problems. So I'd say that it works at least ok. And no data outages here so far. Or maybe I was asleep. ^_^ At cruise.

 

You can run it any time. It's outside of the sim and would only connect if you wanted to adjust some plane profiles (performance-wise). I haven't checked that feature yet, so take that statement with a grain of salt.

 

By this, it's fully independent of your sim and you can start, plan and view things with one device of yours receiving the check result 'ready' (green symbol). I guess that's the best outcome from the mentioned data transfer/status check thingy.

 

No moving map though, that's where your EFB might come into play.

 

Hoping this information helps a bit. I'm ok with the purchase but I wouldn't say that everybody now needs to run and get PFPX. Especially not if you already have a somehow current planner or website in range.

 

Since we are on flight planning, I'll drop that tip on the free Simbrief website. No hidden traps so far and the devs seem to add planes and features on request. You would need a code for current nav data but you can already plan with a late 2011 set for free, forever. They don't sell nav data, so that loop is just around to keep the Mr. Sparrows out.

In follow-up I purchased pfpx (I already owned EFB). It does make my flight planning a lot quicker, which is a huge benefit compared to the amount of time I was expending before. I never got really deep into fsbuild etc. Instead I would go through EFB online to create my flights which required several different steps. The program streamlined the process. I haven't done any etops or redispatch or anything very complicated yet. I am just working on basic flights and checking fuel calculations and trying to plot out accurate timelines. It has been pretty accurate with fuel and the timelines. These things are always subject to slight variations if you have diversions or changes in weather etc. Overall I am pleased with the purchase because I consider it an investment and plan on using the software for years to come.  

I have asked this same question as well. I have EFB but have not picked up PFPX yet. I would recommend you search youtube for a PFPX tutorial and you will see it for yourself. Its more of a one stop shop in creating a flight plan. It appears to making flight planning much much quicker. Also, it does fuel calculations. EFB doesn't do the flight planning. Instead it refers you to another website for a flight plan and I find it has a lot more additional steps in it. Also, EFB does not deal with the fuel at all. I thing PFPX is also taking into consideration things like wind that will impact the amount of fuel you will need. In a nutshell EFB will get you where you need to go, but PFPX will get you there in a realistic way and allow you to do fuel calculations so you can have the most realistic flight possible. I'm sure PFPX has a lot of other features that lets you modify your flightplan, but I don't know enough about it to go into further detail (it does suggest alternate airports to you etc). One question I do have for anyone who has PFPX though is can I run it on a secondary computer and do I need to have it running during the flight for any reason? 

According to the developer of PFPX, and TopCat, in order to use them on a second computer in a network setup, you need  WideFS, and FSUIPC. I have not tried it yet myself yet, but I have purchased both TopCat, and PFPX, and will be purchasing WideFS, and FSUIPC as well.

I use both PFPX, TOPCAT and EFB. I create a flight plan in PFPX which calculates the fuel very accurately for me. The plan itself includes SID/STAR based on current weather which you can modify as you wish. Combined with TOPCAT it gives me a very accurate payload distribution which is very helpful when I'm putting the data in the FMC. This in turn gives me Take Off and Landing data i need. PFPX and TOPCAT give me all the information in one place to help me fill in the data i need for the FMC.
 

I then export the plan to FSX which allows me to import that data into EFB so if i need to make any changes when i am flying due to a change in weather i simply use EFB to provide me with the necessary information. They all work really well together. You don't need to have PFPX running when you are flying FSX. It prints out a great Operation Flight Plan. I sometimes export that plan to my iPad and have that at hand. I also use my iPad to input all the data into the FMC with a cool app.
 

I hope this gives you an idea of how they simply do different things but complement each other very well.

 

I use both PFPX, TOPCAT and EFB. I create a flight plan in PFPX which calculates the fuel very accurately for me. The plan itself includes SID/STAR based on current weather which you can modify as you wish. Combined with TOPCAT it gives me a very accurate payload distribution which is very helpful when I'm putting the data in the FMC. This in turn gives me Take Off and Landing data i need. PFPX and TOPCAT give me all the information in one place to help me fill in the data i need for the FMC.

 

I then export the plan to FSX which allows me to import that data into EFB so if i need to make any changes when i am flying due to a change in weather i simply use EFB to provide me with the necessary information. They all work really well together. You don't need to have PFPX running when you are flying FSX. It prints out a great Operation Flight Plan. I sometimes export that plan to my iPad and have that at hand. I also use my iPad to input all the data into the FMC with a cool app.

 

I hope this gives you an idea of how they simply do different things but complement each other very well.

 

Great .....!

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Marco Aurélio