PMDG 737 Tablet Releases 30 October 23

[Wise87 1,286]

Someone pointed out that the Flight Details and OFP in the photos were for the 777F.

[mikethe6th 60]

I hope this can run externally on an iPad 

[MikeH99 157]

That it lol

[JRBarrett 3,130]

58 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

I'll thank them for its development too, so that now they can move on to improving more useful areas of the sim. 😉

There is definitely nothing ground breaking or exciting here - but that's not a swipe at them, we knew there wouldn't be.  It's just a tablet.  In reality we use more tailored apps on them, but in the sim we have Navigraph plus perf calc - what we all knew we were getting, and all that's really useful.

The bizarre verbiage about it not being an EFB because it wasn't a proprietary, factory installed device is, well... bizarre.  I mean, we're all using iPads these days, with the aforementioned tailored apps as necessary... I don't know a single person in the industry who doesn't call it an "EFB"...

Even the FAA, in AC 120-76C, refers to any device used for flight planning or chart viewing as an “EFB”.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) personal electronic devices (PED) such as iPads, would be either a Class 1 or Class 2 EFB - the main difference being that a Class 1 is handheld, while a class 2 can be mounted to the aircraft structure, but must be be easily removable. The PMDG “UFT” is a Class 2 EFB.

A Class 1 EFB can have only a temporary, easily disconnected power connection (i.e. a USB charger), while a Class 2 EFB can have a direct connection to aircraft primary power.

A Class 3 EFB is a dedicated piece of hardware specifically for aircraft use, is a permanent part of the aircraft, and must be FAA-approved and installed under STC. At one time a Class 3 EFB was the only kind of “EFB” that existed, and perhaps RSR is stuck on thinking that only a Class 3 is a “real” EFB. PMDG’s emulation of an actual Class 3 Boeing EFB is what is found in the P3D versions of their aircraft.

The Dassault Falcon 900s that my company operates used to be equipped with FAA-approved Dassault Class 3 EFBs. We removed those years ago. The flight crews now use Class 1 iPads equipped with JeppView for charts, and ArincDirect for flight planning and performance calculations.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you call it an “EFB” or “UFT” or “Fred”.

[Steve Dra 7,605]

6 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you call it an “EFB” or “UFT” or “Fred”.

I love calling things Fred! 🙂   In fact, I do some coding for automation software in the healthcare industry, and when I'm testing something, and need to insert a quick variable name into the code to see the output, I use "Fred"...Been doing it for years, true story!

 

[Jeff Nielsen 1,403]

52 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

Even the FAA, in AC 120-76C, refers to any device used for flight planning or chart viewing as an “EFB”.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) personal electronic devices (PED) such as iPads, would be either a Class 1 or Class 2 EFB - the main difference being that a Class 1 is handheld, while a class 2 can be mounted to the aircraft structure, but must be be easily removable. The PMDG “UFT” is a Class 2 EFB.

A Class 1 EFB can have only a temporary, easily disconnected power connection (i.e. a USB charger), while a Class 2 EFB can have a direct connection to aircraft primary power.

A Class 3 EFB is a dedicated piece of hardware specifically for aircraft use, is a permanent part of the aircraft, and must be FAA-approved and installed under STC. At one time a Class 3 EFB was the only kind of “EFB” that existed, and perhaps RSR is stuck on thinking that only a Class 3 is a “real” EFB. PMDG’s emulation of an actual Class 3 Boeing EFB is what is found in the P3D versions of their aircraft.

The Dassault Falcon 900s that my company operates used to be equipped with FAA-approved Dassault Class 3 EFBs. We removed those years ago. The flight crews now use Class 1 iPads equipped with JeppView for charts, and ArincDirect for flight planning and performance calculations.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you call it an “EFB” or “UFT” or “Fred”.

Yeah, I think those are also referred to as integrated EFBs/avionics as they can also interface and transfer information or data to-from/with the aircraft's avionics and/or FMCs to some degree.  The A350 and I think the A380 are good examples of aircraft that have those.  Pretty sure they also still use IPADs/EFBs for whatever else.

[Andrew2448 251]

An additional few notes has been added to the post.

 

"Based upon feedback in this thread- I felt there were a few topic areas I should add to my original post. You can find my added topics at the bottom of the post up at the top of the thread, but I'll also add them here for simplicity too:

Additional Notes:
A number of folks have asked "will it be available on an external device?" This is indeed in the original design workflow, but it fits into an area of capability we have not worked with previously- so I cannot give you any timing expectations, as we haven't really evaluated that aspect of the tech implementation yet.

I did not directly address whether this tablet will appear in the DC-6 in my post above: We are aware that many DC-6 pilots would love to have this capability in their DC-6 cockpit. (Including ME!) There are some technical hurdles that need to be cleared in order for that to happen, primarily because the DC-6's existing tablet functionality will have to be completely rewritten in order to function with the UFT. We have not had the free development time available to evaluate whether this is feasible or even what the tech lift looks like- so as of this moment we are not offering any expectations that we will provide the UFT in the DC-6. If/when the dev time is available to evaluate such a move, we will do so- but we have a very full agenda at the moment.

A number of folks have asked if the tablet will work with Xbox: Our development philosophy has been to work diligently in order to ensure that the tablet will be available for Xbox users, and that as much of the functionality as possible should work. That being said, we are still only working on "theory" as the only way to test airplane DLC on Xbox is to get the product through the MS Marketplace intake process, then have our designated beta testers pull the update down and report what they see. (We all have Xboxs internally now , too!) Once we have this availability, we will have a more thorough idea of what works and what does not. Again- in theory all of it should work, but it has been our experience that Xbox is a bit like running through a dark room while blindfolded: The only way to find your way through is to bounce off a few obstacles and then plan for how to get around them.

We will keep you posted as to what we see once we actually have a tablet build operational on Xbox. In the mean time we will continue to sacrifice the metaphorical goat in hopes it all works. "

[captain420 3,099]

Would love to have apps like a full fledge web browser, YouTube, Plex on the tablet! I hate having to TAB out and use a web browser or load up seperate apps for that. It breaks the immersion.

[Tuskin38 6,645]

could someone re-upload the pictures for those who don't have an account?

[sd_flyer 6,095]

9 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

could someone re-upload the pictures for those who don't have an account?

Frankly, if you have seen Leonardo or Fenix EFBs there is not much revolutionary about PMDG one 

[okupton 318]

1 hour ago, captain420 said:

Would love to have apps like a full fledge web browser, YouTube, Plex on the tablet! I hate having to TAB out and use a web browser or load up seperate apps for that. It breaks the immersion.

The fslabs tablet in their P3d Airbus series  is still the best tablet I’ve seen in any sim although someone may know of a better one. The  Web browser within the fslabs tablet is definitely one of the features I like most about it.  There’s really no need to tab out of the sim for any reason which makes it so immersive. 

[Andrew2448 251]

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

could someone re-upload the pictures for those who don't have an account?

https://imgur.com/a/QrvrxCj

[Tuskin38 6,645]

7 minutes ago, Andrew2448 said:

https://imgur.com/a/QrvrxCj

Thanks

Edited October 22, 2023 by Tuskin38

[jason74 142]

its taken sooooooooooooooooooooo long I am expecting it to blow all other EFB.s out of the water ,time will tell

[Tuskin38 6,645]

5 hours ago, Wise87 said:

Someone pointed out that the Flight Details and OFP in the photos were for the 777F.

Though, the tail number is for a privately owned Aviat Husky and the flight number is for a Lufthansa A321 flight that hasn't flown in a year.

lol

Excited for the performance calculator.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Tuskin38