Quick start

Pilot EFB Desk is the browser edition of Pilot EFB, at app.pilotefb.com. It is the same product and the same local-first database as the iOS app, laid out for a desk: a sidebar instead of a tab bar, a command field instead of a thumb. It is a personal planning and briefing companion, not a certified Electronic Flight Bag, and every panel keeps saying so: "Reference only - verify officially." on weather, "May be incomplete - verify officially." on NOTAMs. This chapter takes you from the address bar to a working Overview.

Find your way around

Three gates, in this order, and nothing else loads until all three are passed:

Once through, the shell is the same on every page:

How to sign in

1. Open app.pilotefb.com. The Welcome back screen is the first thing you see; there is no guest mode on the web, so nothing loads until you sign in.
2. Type your Email and Password and click Sign in. Tick Keep me signed in on this device on your own machine; leave it off on a shared crew-room browser.
3. Prefer Google? Click Continue with Google under "or continue with". If you have no account yet, this creates one, and the line under the button says you agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy by continuing.
4. No password to hand? Click Email me a sign-in link instead and open the link from your inbox. Forgotten it? Click Forgot? beside the password field, then Reset password.
5. New to Pilot EFB? Click Create account, fill in Email, Password and Confirm password, and click Create account.

How to accept the disclaimer

1. After sign-in, the Terms of use panel appears if your account has never accepted the current disclaimer. Its rail reads Welcome, Disclaimer and Acknowledge; the disclaimer text is the same wording the iOS app shows.
2. Read it, then tick the box: "I accept the terms above. I understand this is not a certified EFB and will verify all data against official sources before any operational decision."
3. Click Accept & continue. The button stays greyed until the box is ticked - the foot of the panel says "Tick the box above to continue." and then "Your acceptance is recorded with a timestamp."

The acceptance follows the account, so you see this panel once, and the phone and every other browser inherit it. If saving fails you get "Could not save your acceptance. Please try again." - reconnect and click again.

How to start the Desk plan

1. On the paywall, the ticket on the right is headed Choose your plan. Pick Yearly ($99.99 / year, the launch price, with a "Save 36%" chip) or Monthly ($12.99 / month, "$155.88 over twelve months, billed monthly"). Both auto-renew until cancelled.
2. Read the trial line above the plans: "Free for 3 days, then $99.99/year or $12.99/month. A payment card is needed to start; cancel before the trial ends and nothing is charged. One free trial per person and per payment card."
3. Click Start 3-day free trial. The button reads Subscribe · $99.99 / year (or the monthly figure) instead when the account does not qualify for a trial - it has subscribed to Desk before, or the card has already been used for one.
4. Finish the Stripe checkout in the tab that opens. The paywall shows "Opening checkout" and then "Confirming your payment" while it waits, and the desk loads on its own once the subscription is confirmed.

The left half of the paywall is the pitch: an Everything included tab and a Free iOS app vs Desk tab. The note under the comparison is worth a read: the Free column describes the free iOS app, and Desk has no free tier. The same page says the web subscription is separate from any App Store purchase - subscribing on iPhone or iPad does not open the web app. Not ready? Sign out is the only other way off the gate.

How to run the first-run setup

The first time an unconfigured account reaches the desk, a First-run setup takeover opens over it - the same guided walk the iOS app runs, offered once per account.

1. On Let's tailor this to you, pick your role: Airline, Commercial, GA / Private or Student. This is the one step you cannot skip. Click Continue.
2. On Set your home base, type the airport. One station lights up the Overview with its weather and pre-fills your briefings.
3. Airline and commercial pilots get Your operation: under Duty calculator, choose EASA or FAA for your duty and rest rules and how many pilots fly a typical flight. GA pilots get What do you fly? instead.
4. Work through Your flying profile, Keep your paperwork current (medical and proficiency check expiry), Your hours so far (your totals from before Pilot EFB) and Make it yours. Every optional step has Skip for now.
5. On Set up your desk, the web-only step: add the Airports you watch, set your Units (Metric or Imperial, hPa or inHg) and read the Keyboard shortcuts primer.
6. On Stay ready, choose the alerts you want, then finish on the summary step. Tick Tour the desk there and the desk tour starts as soon as setup closes.

How to learn the shell

1. Click any sidebar row to change page. The rail rests as a 64px icon strip with Ops, Pln and Lib band codes, folds back after every page change, and shows each row's name on hover. Click the chevron at the foot (Expand sidebar / Collapse sidebar) to read the labels.
2. Press Cmd+1 to Cmd+9 (Ctrl on Windows) to jump to the first nine destinations in rail order - Overview, Duty & FTL, Logbook, Watch, Flight Brief, Weather, NOTAMs, Airports, Ops Map - and Cmd+, for Settings.
3. Press Cmd+K (or click the command field) and type an ICAO code, a page name, a logbook entry or an action. The deck searches airports, pages, your own records and actions, with a preview of the highlighted row.
4. Click the Notifications bell for alerts - a currency about to lapse, a rest period complete, a watched NOTAM - and Open notifications for the full queue.
5. Click the theme key to cycle System, Light, Dark and Cockpit red-light; it is the same setting as Settings > Appearance.
6. Press ? on any page, outside a text field, for the shortcuts sheet; Esc closes it or the palette. The clock at the far right is UTC, and every time on the desk reads in Zulu unless a screen says otherwise.

How to take the desk tour

1. Click the Desk tour key in the top bar and choose Start the tour (later, Start again). The same panel offers Tour the Watch desk and Hide from the top bar.
2. Follow the twenty-one stops: one per sidebar row, then the command field, the tour key, the bell, the theme cycle, the shortcuts key and the clock.
3. The tour ends on Settings > Help & onboarding, where the replay row lives; Done takes you back to the Overview. If you hid the key, that page brings it back.

How the browser behaves

• Desk updates itself. There is no update banner and nothing to click. A new build is adopted at once on an untouched page or a hidden tab, never over a focused field or unsaved work, and after a quiet pause when you are active - a short toast, "Updating Pilot EFB to the latest version.", says why the page reloaded.
• One tab at a time. The local database takes an exclusive lock. Open Desk in a second tab and it shows "Waiting for another tab": another tab holds the database, this one connects on its own when it answers and takes over if that tab closes, and Reload also works.
• Install it as an app. Desk is installable from the browser's own install control, so it opens in its own window like anything else on the desk. It is offline-first the way the app is - your records and saved briefings survive a connection drop - but fresh weather, NOTAMs, roster data and sync need a connection.

On iPhone and iPad

The iOS app has a guest mode and a free tier; Desk has neither. The phone keeps its own onboarding walk, its own subscription (Pilot EFB Pro, bought in the App Store) and its tab bar. What the two share is your account and your data: sign in on both and your logbook, duties, flights and watched stations sync between them. Pilot EFB on the web is the iOS guide's view of the same desk.

Troubleshooting

"That email and password do not match." If you created the account with Google, click Continue with Google instead; otherwise use Forgot? to reset the password. After several failures the screen asks you to wait a moment before trying again.

The disclaimer appeared again. It returns only when the disclaimer version changes, for every user at once. Tick and accept once more.

The button says Subscribe, not Start 3-day free trial. The account does not qualify: it has held a Desk subscription before, or the card has already started a trial. The plan starts at the end of checkout instead.

"This browser cannot run the database." Private and incognito windows and some older browsers do not provide the storage Desk needs. Open app.pilotefb.com in a normal Chrome, Firefox or Safari window.

"Another tab runs a different version." An update just landed. Reload this tab; if the message stays, reload the other tab too.

The setup did not appear. It is offered once per account and only to an unconfigured one. If the phone already set you up, or another browser skipped it, the desk opens straight away. Settings > Help & onboarding still holds the tour, and every setup answer lives in Settings.

Where next

• Overview - the masthead, the station board and the NOTAM rail you just landed on.
• Keyboard and command deck - every chord, and what Cmd+K can find.
• Settings and sync - home base, duty rules, units, appearance and the sync bridge to the phone.
• Pilot EFB Desk - plans, the trial terms and the launch-price lock.