Pilot EFB's other workspace is a browser. The web edition, Pilot EFB Desk, is the same product - the same modules, the same local-first database, the same disclaimers - laid out for a desk: a sidebar instead of a tab bar, multi-pane workbenches instead of stacked screens, a command palette instead of a thumb. This chapter is the tour. See Pilot EFB Desk for plans and the trial terms, and the Desk user guide for every desk module, task by task.
Subscription-only, up front
The web edition is a paid subscription of its own, and it says so at the door. The order is: sign in with your Pilot EFB account, accept the disclaimer (recorded once per account, so it carries across browsers and devices), then the web plan - Pilot EFB Desk, a separate subscription at 199.99 US dollars per year or 19.99 US dollars per month, alongside the iOS plan described in Free vs Pro. New Desk subscribers get a 3-day free trial on either Desk plan (yearly or monthly); the iOS plan has no trial. A payment card is taken up front, nothing is charged if you cancel before the trial ends, and it is one trial per person and per card, so the button offers it only when your account qualifies. There is no read-only guest mode on the web; until all three gates are passed, nothing else loads.
One product, two workspaces
Everything you know from the app carries over. The database is local to your browser (the app works through connection drops the same way the phone does), and Cloud Sync is the bridge: with Auto-sync on, a duty logged on the phone is on the desk when you sit down, and an entry corrected at the desk is on the phone when you leave. On the iPhone, Auto-sync is part of Pilot EFB Pro, and the Desk plan does not include it; without it, the phone still backs up to your account when you tap Sync now, and brings the desk's changes in with Restore from account or at sign-in. Settings, Backup & Sync covers how that works and what stays free.
The sidebar groups the product the way you work: Overview, then Operations (Duty & FTL, Logbook, Watch), Planning (Flight Brief, Weather, NOTAMs, Airports, Ops Map) and Library (Tools, Checklists), with Community and Settings at the foot. The Learn & Reference library is on the web too, reached through Settings > Help & about or by name from the command palette. And the desk adds desk things: Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K) opens a palette that searches airports, actions and every page by name - a tool, a Learn reference or Logbook > Currency, each shown with its trail - Cmd+1 to Cmd+9 (Ctrl on Windows) jump between the sidebar pages, and a station from the Overview board, or the whole station wall, can pop out into its own window for a second monitor. The top bar's Guided tours key lists a walk for the desk shell and for the Duty, Logbook and Watch desks, the current desk first; the same walks live under Settings > Help & onboarding.
The Overview desk
The web Home is built around one question: what changed since you last looked?
The masthead's since last look line counts what arrived while you were away, beside what the desk is watching, when it last fetched and whether this browser has synced. Below it, the Station board watches your home base and the stations you choose for it (your pinned, favourite and recent ones until you choose) with category, wind, visibility, report age and NOTAM counts per row - a wider panel adds ceiling, QNH and a six-hour TAF look-ahead - and an honest "No data available" line when a field publishes nothing, never a blank pretending otherwise - and the NOTAM alerts panel beside it headlines what is new at the same stations. Today & next lays the day out on a 00-24Z ruler with your next recorded event; on duty, the Active duty panel beside it mirrors the phone's FDP ring ("Personal planning only." included). Action items then ranks what needs you. Every panel names its source and carries the same verbatim framing as the app: "Reference only - verify officially." on weather, "May be incomplete - verify officially." on NOTAMs.
The Duty & FTL console
The Duty & FTL engine is the same pure calculator the phone runs - the console just gives it room: a masthead across the top, the live FDP ring with the regulatory notes written out (the frame above classes the duty as a late finish, with the rule paragraph cited), and the cumulative flight-time and duty-time ladders labelled with the ORO.FTL references they implement. The segments you know sit in a section rail down the left, grouped Live (Overview, Today), Log (Roster, with its Ahead, All, Calendar and Year views), Plan (Reserve, What-if) and Tools, and the same honesty line closes the panel: "Cumulative totals use duties recorded in Pilot EFB and are only as complete as that history - a personal estimate, not compliance evidence."
The logbook at desk size
The Logbook becomes what a logbook wants to be on a big screen: a real table. Month-grouped rows you sort by clicking a column header, quick filter chips (This month, Night, Cross-country, Sim), bulk edit, a switch between every column and only the ones with data, H:MM or decimal display, CSV export, and the same career, currency and credential readouts the phone carries - with "Not tracked" said plainly where evidence is missing, "Does not apply" where a rule is not yours, and "Personal record only." at the foot.
Weather and NOTAM workbenches
The Weather workbench pairs a stations rail (your watch list and your groups, with an airport you open but do not watch listed under Viewing) with a two-column station view: the raw METAR, decoded cells and observation detail on the left, and the TAF with its validity timeline on the right, graded by validity window the same way as the app, with the trend chip ("Steady" above) computed from the forecast in force. The raw text always leads, and the header names the source and fetch time.
The NOTAMs workbench is triage plus reading room: filters and severity counts in the console, the station's grouped cards in the middle, and a detail pane that shows the complete raw NOTAM with its decoded validity timeline, Q-code and classification, and for a runway notice a field plan with the affected runway marked. The pane goes further than the phone's: a replacement chain (what this notice replaces or cancels, what later replaced it, and the words that changed), related notices at the same station, effective and expiry times with their relative and station-local readings, the notice's own history on this device, a one-line briefing copy, and a private note and a snooze that holds only until the text changes, a later notice references it or it expires - snoozed notices leave the queue and sit under More filters. Notes and snoozes sync with your account. The workbench states its own limits in one line at the head of the board, which starts "Fetched NOTAMs only" and ends "- absence here is not an all-clear.", and the rail's Sources list names each station's source and fetch time.
The Ops Map
The web edition's Ops Map gives the aviation chart what the phone cannot: the whole window. It is the same chart engine and the same rules - "Not for navigation" pinned with the data credits - with a layers panel, search, a time bar that scrubs weather layers through the day and snaps back to LIVE, and a share panel for a PNG of the current view. A permalink carries your view (camera, layers, time) so a colleague opens exactly what you see. It also draws layers the phone does not - US temporary flight restrictions, lightning, terrain shading, FIR boundaries and a lat/lon grid - and adds per-leg route timing, route editing on the map, a vertical section along the route, and Watch this route, which sets up alert rules for it on the Watch Desk.
Airports, Watch Desk and the rest
The Airports desk works like the Weather and NOTAM desks: the same stations rail on the left, holding your saved airports and collections, and the airport reference or a board of airport cards on the right. The Watch Desk is a record of what the server's own checks saw at the stations on your desk and along your routes, under rules you set, leading with one figure (unacknowledged events) and a strip of the stations you watch. The Desk user guide covers each one.
Community and settings
The sidebar's foot holds Community - the same feature-request board, with browsing open and posting behind sign-in - and Settings, which arranges the same folders as the app (Settings, Backup & Sync) into desk panes: the same rows, the same honesty surfaces, the same verbatim disclaimers. The rows that only make sense on an iPhone (app lock, widgets, Spotlight, offline map packs) are left out, and two are added: Settings > Notifications has a routing matrix that decides which channels - phone push, browser push, the daily email digest - each alert family reaches, and Settings > Privacy & security has Desk sessions, the browsers signed in to your account.
Web things worth knowing
A few behaviours are specific to running in a browser, and all are stated on screen when they matter:
- It keeps itself up to date. The web app updates itself - no update banner, no manual step. A new build is adopted the moment it cannot cost you anything: instantly on an untouched or hidden tab, never while you have unsaved work or a field focused, and after a quiet pause when you are active - with a short notice so the reload reads as intended.
- Several tabs, one database. Your open tabs share the one local database: one tab holds it and the others work through that tab. A tab that is still connecting shows "Waiting for another tab" and explains that it "connects on its own as soon as it does, and takes over if that tab closes". If two tabs end up on different builds after an update, the screen says "Another tab runs a different version" and asks for a reload.
- One account, two browsers. A Desk account can be seated in at most two browsers at once. A third browser lands on a held gate that names the other seats (their networks masked) and can end one of them to take the seat, check again, or sign out. An evicted browser is told another browser took its seat. The rule is seat based, not address based, so a hotel or airport Wi-Fi never locks you out, and it never touches your phone's sign-in. Settings > Privacy & security > Desk sessions lists the browsers signed in to your account, with Sign out that browser on each and Sign out every other browser; the iOS app never counts towards the limit.
- If the browser clears the app's storage. Clearing site data for Pilot EFB while it is open empties the database under the running app. The app does not pretend otherwise: it shows "Local database is empty" and says the browser or device cleared its storage, that a reload rebuilds the database and a signed-in account then restores from its cloud backup, and that anything saved on this device since the last backup is lost. Incognito windows keep their storage in memory, so this is where it is most likely to happen. If the stored file itself is unreadable, the screen reads "Local database is damaged" and offers to reset it, with the same cloud restore and the same warning about anything saved since the last backup.
It also installs from the browser as an app, so it can live in your dock like everything else on the desk.
Where next
- The Desk user guide - the web edition's own guide, chapter by chapter, from signing in to the Watch Desk and the Ops Map.
- Free vs Pro - the web plan beside the iOS plan, and what Pro unlocks.
- Settings, Backup & Sync - the sync bridge between phone and desk.
- Duty & FTL, Logbook, Weather, NOTAMs and Aviation Map - each module's full chapter; the web edition changes the layout, never the rules.