7 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

No, it's on PMDG - and stop with the excuses, the run arounds, two step side way shuffle - it all amounts to the same conclusion: PMDG is struggling to supply features that are available in freeware mods.

It's 2023, the "Simbrief Downloader" should have been retired a long time ago. 

Aircraft with "simbrief integration" with their EFBs are doing the very same thing the Simbrief downloader does.  If this ability were to be "retired", you wouldn't have uplink from Simbrief to any aircraft.  Would you consider that to be progress?

It boggles my mind why people place the importance they do on a make-believe iPad.  It's not real, it's just a defined space of your computer screen that is instructed to display certain information, styled to look like ios.  That's it.  This is the same information and functionally you could always access in the sim before EFBs were a thing; for instance via the Navigraph panel, or the aircraft options menu in an FMC like PMDG does it, etc.  There's nothing unique or superior about placing these things on a different part of a display and throwing the appearance of an ipad around it.  It's the same stuff.

Of all the things that most real pilots look at with bemusement in the sim world, this obsession with a tablet would be near the top of the list 😉.

21 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

Aircraft with "simbrief integration" with their EFBs are doing the very same thing the Simbrief downloader does.  If this ability were to be "retired", you wouldn't have uplink from Simbrief to any aircraft.  Would you consider that to be progress?

It boggles my mind why people place the importance they do on a make-believe iPad.  It's not real, it's just a defined space of your computer screen that is instructed to display certain information, styled to look like ios.  That's it.  This is the same information and functionally you could always access in the sim before EFBs were a thing; for instance via the Navigraph panel, or the aircraft options menu in an FMC like PMDG does it, etc.  There's nothing unique or superior about placing these things on a different part of a display and throwing the appearance of an ipad around it.  It's the same stuff.

Of all the things that most real pilots look at with bemusement in the sim world, this obsession with a tablet would be near the top of the list 😉.

I see complaints about lack of EFB all the time and most of the complaints about why it is missing seem to be rooted in this and I don't really get it. The only reason I personally want a functional EFB in the 737 is so it can do performance calculations for me because I'm a mathematical moron (in case that word gets the Avsim censors attention and considering I'm talking about myself forgive me for clarifying "M-O-R-O-N") and I enjoy the variety that capability adds to my take offs and landings. It serves no other useful purpose to me beyond that. Why people complain about the lack of simbrief integration when using the simbrief downloader serves exactly that function anyway is beyond me. As though spending 30 seconds setting the downloader up is some sort of hardship that is beneath them. It smells like entiteled laziness to me and more than a little odd. I often wonder if such users are newcomers to this hobby and are word not allowed of the fuss we used to have to go through to make all of this work "back in the day". For a community that seems to relish "realism" many seem awful allergic to it.

If PMDG released an EFB that did nothing but performance calcs it would be a complete experience for this mathematically illiterate muppet 😆

Edit: just when you thought you have averted the hilarious word censor of the forum it finds another even more ridiculous one to mute😆

Edited February 1, 20233 yr by Jazz

Same here. The EFB is not important to me. All I need is the OFP and the charts. It would be nice if PMDG could whip up a perf calculator and slap it on their web site, though.

Agreed that a perf calc would be nice.  They could even just build it into the CDU interface, as many / most airlines get their manual perf request data via ACARS anyway, vs a tablet app.

Just to throw my 2 cents on this EFB topic. I personally just use the FMC cheat to get my t/o numbers.

 

What I do want the EFB for, is the simbrief integration. But not because I don't like the downloader option. But because I am hoping and wishing the EFB will mean I no longer have to plan ALL my flights before launching the sim.

 

If I am planning on spending an entire day flying around, I have to plan every flight beforehand, and by the end of the day, the weather wont be accurate. Or even more, what if I decide I want to fly somewhere else instead? Then I have to enter every waypoint into the FMC. Not a big deal, but it is nice to be lazy sometimes. But then there is no weather to import into the FMC, and then the arrival time and fuel calculations are way off. That is the only thing personally that gets me excited about the EFB. 

 

The great thing about this hobby though, is we all have different priorities, different aspects of FS that we prefer, different ways of flying around the (virtual) world. A lot of the comments in this thread are really negative towards other users. I hope someday these discussions don't always end up that way. We all love FS, so can't we all get along? 

 

Just my 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth.

 

-Tony@PVD

18 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

Just to throw my 2 cents on this EFB topic. I personally just use the FMC cheat to get my t/o numbers.

It doesn't do derated take off calcs. That's the point.

18 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

What I do want the EFB for, is the simbrief integration. But not because I don't like the downloader option. But because I am hoping and wishing the EFB will mean I no longer have to plan ALL my flights before launching the sim.

You don't need to do that. I don't. I plan a flight on simbrief, the downloader downlaods all I need without me doing anything. I fly that leg and when the pax are deboarding I plan the next leg on simbrief and then the downloader puts the files for the next leg in place with all the latest data. Why would you need to plan them all in advance?

18 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

If I am planning on spending an entire day flying around, I have to plan every flight beforehand, and by the end of the day, the weather wont be accurate. Or even more, what if I decide I want to fly somewhere else instead? Then I have to enter every waypoint into the FMC. Not a big deal, but it is nice to be lazy sometimes. But then there is no weather to import into the FMC, and then the arrival time and fuel calculations are way off. That is the only thing personally that gets me excited about the EFB. 

Like I said, all the data is put in place for each flight. I never leave the sim or the apron. The weather is accurate because you just created the data for the next leg. I even generate the flight plan again before TOD so I have the latest descent winds. The calculations are never off because you always have the latest data. It sounds like you may not have grasped how this works. It seems like you think there are some kind of limitations where there are none.

 

Edited February 1, 20233 yr by Jazz

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

It boggles my mind why people place the importance they do on a make-believe iPad.  It's not real, it's just a defined space of your computer screen that is instructed to display certain information, styled to look like ios.  That's it.  This is the same information and functionally you could always access in the sim before EFBs were a thing; for instance via the Navigraph panel, or the aircraft options menu in an FMC like PMDG does it, etc.  There's nothing unique or superior about placing these things on a different part of a display and throwing the appearance of an ipad around it.  It's the same stuff.

Of all the things that most real pilots look at with bemusement in the sim world, this obsession with a tablet would be near the top of the list 😉.

It's interesting that you would separate and minimize the request for a "make-believe iPad" but fail to point out that the make-believe iPad is part of an entire make believe cockpit. As a matter of fact, there are entire threads on make believe wing-flex, make-believe sequences of beacons-to-strobes, make-believe FMCs, make-believe pilots talking about the level of make-believe "study-level" for something they don't actually have to study for. So it seems surreal that the request for a working EFB would be any less valid than the request for anything else in the make believe world of flight simulation.

And of all things real pilots would look at with bemusement, I doubt that the obsession for a tablet would be any less curious than any of the other obsessions here on Avsim.

Just saying....

Mike T.

Edited February 1, 20233 yr by Mike T

45 minutes ago, Jazz said:

It doesn't do derated take off calcs. That's the point.

You don't need to do that. I don't. I plan a flight on simbrief, the downloader downlaods all I need without me doing anything. I fly that leg and when the pax are deboarding I plan the next leg on simbrief and then the downloader puts the files for the next leg in place with all the latest data. Why would you need to plan them all in advance?

Like I said, all the data is put in place for each flight. I never leave the sim or the apron. The weather is accurate because you just created the data for the next leg. I even generate the flight plan again before TOD so I have the latest descent winds. The calculations are never off because you always have the latest data. It sounds like you may not have grasped how this works. It seems like you think there are some kind of limitations where there are none.

 

I wish it worked that way for me. But it certainly does not. Whenever I plan a flight while still in the sim, the PMDG FMC doesn't find the flight plan, and also will give a weather error when trying to upload it, if I input the flight plan manually. I can promise you though, that the downloader did download the flight plans and weather to the correct folder.

*Quick add. I have tried planning a route say PVD-BWI, downloading the flight plans, running the sim, then 'refile' the flight plan with a different route, to see if the 737 just needs to see the files or of it reads them in advance. It reads them in advance, changing the routing did not work. Hopefully you can follow.

I have seen several people also mention how you need to have the PMDG flight plans in its folders before loading the aircraft. So I know I am not the only one.

However if you know of some trick to make this work please share! Because on my setup (and based on many other comments, others as well). The FMC will not find any flight plan that I did not build and download before loading the aircraft. 

If you can solve this annoyance for me, I would be grateful, and then 100% satisfied with my 737. Thanks. 

 

-Tony@PVD

Edited February 1, 20233 yr by breakinghbts
Show an example of something I tried

12 minutes ago, Mike T said:

It's interesting that you would separate and minimize the request for a "make-believe iPad" but fail to point out that the make-believe iPad is part of an entire make believe cockpit. As a matter of fact, there are entire threads on make believe wing-flex, make-believe sequences of beacons-to-strobes, make-believe FMCs, make-believe pilots talking about the level of make-believe "study-level" for something they don't actually have to study for. So it seems surreal that the request for a working EFB would be any less valid than the request for anything else in the make believe world of flight simulation.

And of all things real pilots would look at with bemusement, I doubt that the obsession for a tablet would be any less curious than any of the other obsessions here on Avsim.

Just saying....

Mike T.

Oh, but I meant make-believe *within the sim.*. Sorry if that wasn't obvious.

Make believe in the sense that all the tablet does is display information that already exists, or menus that already exist, elsewhere.  An EFB in the sim doesn't add any functionality or realism, it only displays what's always been here, in a different place on your screen.

And yes, I promise you, this EFB obsession is met with some bemusement compared to other things in the sim - though granted that's based on my own opinion and that of the other airlines folks who also sim that I know.  So I guess, not an enormous sample size ;).

Just now, breakinghbts said:

I wish it worked that way for me. But it certainly does not. Whenever I plan a flight while still in the sim, the PMDG FMC doesn't find the flight plan, and also will give a weather error when trying to upload it

It does. The reason it isn't working for you is because there are two places you can tell the Simbrief downloader to install the flightplan and WX files. You are installing them in the wrong place. If you install them in the PMDG WX and Flightplan folder that is in the Community folder then the sim/aircraft folder can't access them when the sim is running. It can only access those if they are placed there before the sim is started which means every time you put new ones there you need to restart the sim. You need to direct the downloader to install them in the other location with encryption that it can access when the sim is running. If you install them there you can pump plans and weather data into them all day and it will update in real time. I'm not at my PC now to direct you there but it is the convoluted MSFS file location beyond the %appdata% folder on your C:drive. That's why it is not working for you in this way.

7 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

I have seen several people also mention how you need to have the PMDG flight plans in its folders before loading the aircraft. So I know I am not the only one.

No, you are not the only one that is unaware of what I just told you😉

 

7 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

However if you know of some trick to make this work please share! Because on my setup (and based on many other comments, others as well). The FMC will not find any flight plan that I did not build and download before loading the aircraft. 

I just did

Your're welcome.

When I'm at my pc next I will give you better directions to that folder location but you should be able to work it out from what I have just told you.

3 minutes ago, Jazz said:

It does. The reason it isn't working for you is because there are two places you can tell the Simbrief downloader to install the flightplan and WX files. You are installing them in the wrong place. If you install them in the PMDG WX and Flightplan folder that is in the Community folder then the sim/aircraft folder can't access them when the sim is running. It can only access those if they are placed there before the sim is started which means every time you put new ones there you need to restart the sim. You need to direct the downloader to install them in the other location with encryption that it can access when the sim is running. If you install them there you can pump plans and weather data into them all day and it will update in real time. I'm not at my PC now to direct you there but it is the convoluted MSFS file location beyond the %appdata% folder on your C:drive. That's why it is not working for you in this way.

No, you are not the only one that is unaware of what I just told you😉

 

I just did

Your're welcome.

When I'm at my pc next I will give you better directions to that folder location but you should be able to work it out from what I have just told you.

My community folder is in the APPDATA folder, so I'm not sure where to look. This is the first I have heard that there is 2 PMDG flight plan/weather folders. Doing some file searching now, and all I am finding is the community folder that I have been using. Man, I hope I can figure this out. Thanks.

-Tony@PVD

14 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

Make believe in the sense that all the tablet does is display information that already exists, or menus that already exist, elsewhere.  An EFB in the sim doesn't add any functionality or realism, it only displays what's always been here, in a different place on your screen.

That's just not true.  A performance calculator will add all kinds of new functionality (that has NOT always been here).

1 minute ago, breakinghbts said:

My community folder is in the APPDATA folder, so I'm not sure where to look. This is the first I have heard that there is 2 PMDG flight plan/weather folders. Doing some file searching now, and all I am finding is the community folder that I have been using. Man, I hope I can figure this out. Thanks.

-Tony@PVD

Trust me. There are two places with PMDG folders that contain  "Flightplan" and "WX" folders. One will be wherever your community folder is and that can be anywhere on any drive and THAT one will be the WRONG place to put them. I assure you that you are sending them to the wrong location. The location you should be sending them to for this to work is in a silly location and the file path will be different depending on whether you have the Steam version or MS store version if my memory serves me correctly. I have the Store version and can't give you the location off the top of my head. I will need to be at my other machine for that. But I very confident this is your problem. It's the same mistake I made. It's all in the manual, mate. If you follow the directions in the manual to the letter you won't have this problem but I suspect you have done what I did.

3 minutes ago, MadDog said:

That's just not true.  A performance calculator will add all kinds of new functionality (that has NOT always been here).

That's partially true, but also it's completely independent of being in an EFB.

I say partially true, because of course there's no shortage of perf calcs - free and paid - that you can use on your computer.  There just isn't one that came with the PMDG.  They are building it into the EFB, but could just as easily build it into a CDU interface (which would actually be more realistic.)

This is a functionality that doesn't actually have anything to do with an EFB; PMDG has simply tied the two things together in their dev workflow.

7 minutes ago, breakinghbts said:

My community folder is in the APPDATA folder, so I'm not sure where to look. This is the first I have heard that there is 2 PMDG flight plan/weather folders. Doing some file searching now, and all I am finding is the community folder that I have been using. Man, I hope I can figure this out. Thanks.

-Tony@PVD

I'll take a look in the sim now and get back to you in a few.  This is good to know; I've seen people complain about this and never understood why it works for me but not others.