Pilot EFB is a personal, informational flight companion for iPhone and iPad. It keeps the things you reach for around a duty day - weather, NOTAMs, flight time limits, your logbook, briefings and a set of flight-deck utilities - in one offline-first app. This chapter takes you from installing the app to a working Home dashboard.
Install the app
Pilot EFB is a free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later). The free tier is a working app, not a demo - the optional Pro subscription unlocks the full duty, logbook and briefing toolkit, and the Free vs Pro chapter maps exactly where the line runs.
First launch: the disclaimer
The first screen you see is the safety disclaimer. It states plainly what the app is - an informational and organisational tool - and what it is not. Reading it is worth the minute it takes, because it frames every number the app will ever show you.
- Read the disclaimer text.
- Tick the acceptance box underneath it.
- Choose Accept & continue (it stays disabled until the box is ticked).
Acceptance is recorded once, with a timestamp, and does not reappear unless the terms materially change. The full text stays available afterwards in Settings > About.
Guest or account?
Next comes the welcome screen, and a genuine choice:
- Get started continues as a guest. Everything lives on your device; no account, no sign-up. This is the fastest path, and you can add an account any time later.
- Sign in connects an existing account, with cloud backup and your data on every device you sign into.
Nothing about the app's features changes with this choice - an account adds backup and sync, not capability. If you finish setup as a guest, the app offers account creation once at the end (and you can decline with Not now, open Pilot EFB).
The setup interview
A short series of screens - the exact count depends on your role - tailors the app to your flying. Only the first is required:
- Your role. Airline, commercial, general aviation or student. This shapes which modules lead on your Home screen and which questions follow.
- The rest - all optional. Home base and what to call you, then (depending on role) your operator and aircraft, flying profile, licences and credentials, hours carried forward from a paper logbook, duty rules, and which alerts and reminders to turn on.
Every optional step offers Skip for now, and the Finish later link in the corner completes setup immediately. Skipped items are never lost - they resurface as a Make it yours checklist on Home, so you can finish them when the numbers are to hand (carried-forward hours are much easier with your old logbook open).
The final You're ready screen offers a short guided tour of the main tabs - take it, or open the app and replay the tour later from Settings > Help.
Get your bearings
The app is organised around five tabs:
- Home - your dashboard: what is live now (an active flight or duty), weather at your home base, currency at a glance, and quick tools.
- Flight Brief - build a briefing around a flight: weather, NOTAMs and route information in one place.
- Duty - the flight time limitations module: duty log, live limits, calendar and planning. Covered in depth in Duty & FTL.
- Log - your electronic logbook, hours and currency.
- Tools - everything else: airports, converters, checklists, descent planning, reference material and more.
Everything not on a tab - airport detail pages, weather stations, the NOTAM workbench, settings - opens from inside these five.
Two settings worth doing now
Both live in Settings (the gear from Home):
- Home base. Your default airport drives the Home weather card and a lot of sensible defaults - set it during the interview or later under Settings > Home base.
- Duty rules. If you fly under FTL rules, pick your regime (EASA ORO.FTL or FAA Part 117) under Settings > FTL regime - the Duty tab also offers this the first time you open it.
Where next
- Duty & FTL - log duties and read your limits.
- Free vs Pro - what the subscription does and does not gate.
- The chapter list on the guide index covers every module as chapters are published.