EFB for PMDG 737 will possibly come in October

[BillC 135]

On 8/14/2022 at 2:36 PM, Bobsk8 said:

Emirates is the only one flying the A 380 I believe. 

A British Airways 380 flew over my house yesterday climbing through FL150 en route Vancouver, I believe. Defo BA.

[Bdub22 1,621]

5 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

Looks to me that PMDG are clearly in over their head with bringing their addons up to the expected standard of MSFS 2020 (simbrief integration, EFB, texture work)

I agree with this comment, but not necessarily about the rest. Their (PMDG) biggest problem is making "promises" they can't keep. I knew when they released the -700 and they made the future release timelines that it would never happen. They're wildly off by what they originally planned. I know things happen and that's ok, but they should plan for that. Its August and there's only 2 variants out and no EFB. Managing expectations isn't PMDG's forte. 

[threexgreen 3,152]

I posted this over in the PMDG forums already in another EFB thread wondering why discussions about EFBs seem to always devolve into some sort of pushback against EFBs with rather peculiar argumentation. One question about the EFB is enough to invite all kinds of remarks like:

Not every airline offers EFBs to their pilots. Boeing are moving away from built-in EFBs in the 777 and 787. Airplanes can fly without EFBs. In 1956, there were no EFBs. You don't appreciate the systems depth of PMDG aircraft because you only care about EFBs (the flight sim equivalent to: Young people don't live life because they only care about smartphones). Go do some flying instead of looking at EFBs. I found 13 photos of flight decks with no EFB mounted, so having one in the sim aircraft all the time is inherently unrealistic. You can use 12 external (paid) apps scattered across 21 windows to get your charts and performance calculations so why bother with an EFB. And, my favorite that I recently came across: I print 30+ pages of OFP and charts for every sim flight, so EFBs are superfluous. All of this entirely misses the point...

I don't know who said airplanes can't fly without an EFB, but EFBs make both pancake mode and especially VR much more convenient. I don't want to pay for a third party app that only has calculations for the 800 that I have to use for the 700 and none at all for landing calculations. I also don't want to awkwardly move the Navigraph Charts window around in VR every flight and pay for some addon to view my OFP in the sim. I also don't want to tab out of the sim and open another program (talk about immersion killer) for every single data point from the OFP I'm putting into the FMC or to have one quick glimpse at a restriction on my approach. I'd also like a somewhat realistic way of getting ATIS and WX information given that ACARS isn't simulated other than browsing websites on my phone. Sorry but no, that's not even close to having a proper EFB on the flight deck, especially in VR.

If one doesn't need an EFB, fine, but it's not going to hurt having one and for what I assume to be the majority of people it's going to make simming more enjoyable.

*mic drop*

[Maxis 1,886]

Doing fine without it. Don't mind waiting for it to be ready whenever that happens.

[Gazzareth 819]

1 hour ago, Maxis said:

Doing fine without it. Don't mind waiting for it to be ready whenever that happens.

Absolutely, loads my FP from Simbrief without any issue whatsoever - the only thing I feel like I am missing is a performance calculator. 

Does not in anyway detract from my enjoyment of the aircraft. Similar in many ways to those in this thread that don't own it, but love to moan about it's perceived shortcomings.

 

G

[aniiran 433]

 I have to admit the Navigraph charts and OFP in the EFB has been a game changer for me.  I look forward to the EFB with the 737s