General Tips

A real-world EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) is usually an IPAD, Tablet or Laptop computer, containing flight documentation, charts, NOTAMs etc. Airline pilots refer to the EFB constantly because everything they need is in one place.

When simulating flight, we can have a similar idea, with the advantage that we can look at the stuff on a full-size monitor. 
Add-ons like AVITAB enable you to consult such documentation from withing the X-Plane cockpit. 

But when you want to plan and execute your flight, you don’t want to search the Internet for the relevant PDF files. By the time you have everything together, there’s no time left to fly.

My suggestion is to start assembling your own comprehensive Simulation EFB. 

Create a dedicated folder called EFB Briefcase, which has sub-folders containing:
• Documentation of all the aircraft in your hangar. The official repository is here
• Documentation on any add-on software that you use
• Scenery manuals – for simplified airport diagrams, etc
• Charts—every time you come across a chart when browsing, save it in the briefcase for use “one day”. You could also purchase a Navigraph subscription.
• Reviews – The information contained in these reviews can save you an enormous amount of time. Make a point of storing a PDF review or a link to a review on a major site like x-planereviews.com or x-plained.com
• A PDF copy of the offline X-plane manual and a link to the online version.

This Briefcase folder, which usually has many sub-folders, eventually contains everything that we might want to look up when running or configuring X-Plane, or simply as a handy repository to keep all our learning and reference stuff together.
It can be located on the X-Plane computer or, better yet, on a secondary computer, laptop, or tablet.

Not to forget

Your EFB Briefcase should of course contain all your Flying-Low e-books. Browse the whole collection here

Most X-Plane users know that pressing  creates a screenshot which is stored in the …X-plane 12\Output\screenshots folder.

But there is a problem… You have to pause  and then change the camera position. But by then you have probably already flown too far.

Here’s a neat trick – at any time during your flight, press  to pause and then to toggle the replay mode.

The replay scrubber appears :  

and you can now scrub the video to exactly the point in your flight that interests you, use the view controls to adjust the screenshot camera and take your shot.

Then simply toggle  again to carry on flying where you left off.

Better screenshots

Click View –> Show screenshot controls and a window appears allowing you to adjust exposure, depth-of-field and sharpening.

Aviation glossaries are usually either too complex and unwieldy or too short to be helpful. I came across a really good glossary which hits the sweet spot between the two.

@VSKYLABS is offering a free download of an aviation and aerodynamics glossary that every X-Plane pilot should have permanently on their desktop. It contains many terms which are absent in most professional pilot’s glossaries available online.

Here is a link

If you intend to use X-Plane in an area with no internet access, always run X-Plane immediately before going offline. The download version of X-Plane regularly contacts its license server but will not be disabled for at least two weeks after the last internet contact. After about 2 weeks you may find that X-plane is temporarily locked until you once again regain an internet connection.

If you are likely to be offline for long periods, rather purchase the 12 DVD set – available here. This version does not “phone home”.

Did you know that the X-Plane Developer site has started offering official paint kits for download?
So far, they offer kits for:

• Airbus A330
• Citation X
• PA 18 Cub

Get them Here

There is a brilliant website worth visiting. It’s called nextsimflight

This site allows you to either specify your departure airport of choice or, alternatively, your arrival airport.
Then you specify the aircraft you want to use and how much time you have available – i.e., long you want the flight to last.
There are other optional parameters that you can fill in.

Once you have told nextsimflight what you want, a list of suggested destinations which satisfy your criteria appear.

Once you select one of the suggestions, another screen appears, giving you lots of useful information from which you can create your flight plan.

This site is amazingly handy – give it a try.

If you feel like a change from the default wallpaper that appears behind the main menu, you can add any image (screenshot or wife-portrait) into the …X-Plane 12\Output\backgrounds folder. This folder is empty by default.

Just make sure that you have cropped them to the display proportions of your monitor.

You can add either a .JPG file or a .PNG file. If you add two images into this folder, X-Plane will alternate between the two backgrounds each time you start a new session.

If you remove the images from this folder, the default image displays again.