Closed Traffic Podcast
Average aviation enthusiast covering all things aviation and flight simulation.Hosted by Johnny Green Michael Salmon and Charlie Roper
Closed Traffic Podcast
An A320 Captain’s Plan To Simplify Flight Simulation
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We sit down with A320 captain and developer Katie Pilot to unpack EFBX, a new electronic flight bag platform designed to turn flight simulation into a clean, unified workflow. Along the way, we get the origin story, the frustrations that sparked the build, and the feature ideas that could make MSFS flying feel truly plug and play.
• Katie’s unexpected path into aviation and what hooked her on flying
• Why airline flying is structured and why coding scratches the creative itch
• Running the EFB on phones and tablets over a local network without IP hunting
• Integrations discussed: GSX, vPilot VATSIM tuning, message relay, ATC replay
• Quality-of-life apps like remote screenshots, scratch pad, and customizable backgrounds
• App store concept, code review, and security concerns around local networking
…….and much more!
Website: www.closedtrafficpodcast.com
Facebook: @Closedtrafficpodcast
Follow us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/closedtraffic
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_01Live from the laboratory, welcome to the Close Traffic Podcast, an aviation and flight simulation show.
SPEAKER_02Welcome aboard.
SPEAKER_00Johnny, and in the studio with me is our co-host and a resident virtual F one hundred Super Saber pilot. Charlie. Charlie, say hello to the people, man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Hey, at least I didn't shoot you down this time. Like, what was it? The F4.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm still seeking therapy over that, by the way. Yeah. Johnny's like spike, boom. It was over. Yeah, yep. Don't ski's man, barbecue chicken. Nevertheless, guys, again, welcome. Heck of a show. Lots to talk about today. And really want to touch home on a product that's probably going to revolutionize that is going to revolutionize the industry. Before I do that, I want to introduce our very special guest, Real World A320 Captain, developer who played a huge role in the Indabils A310 as well as the EFB on the Phoenix A320, ladies and gentlemen. Katie pilot. Katie say hello to people.
SPEAKER_05Hello. Good evening. Thank you so much for having me on. It's really sweet to that you asked me to come out. And also, as I say earlier, at such short notice as well.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. No, no, we definitely appreciate your flexibility. All I know was I got a text from Charlie, quick, get it set up. And I'm like, who am I setting up? Um we are we're absolutely absolutely thrilled to have you for sure. Um again, I know it's late, but I I can't help to. I know we talked talked a little bit about it early, but did you get sold in from your trip from Expo? I know Expo was a yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I'm still kind of feeling the effects of of Expo. I'm still I'm I'm still still going to bed at silly o'clock and waking up in the afternoon. But you know, I still haven't gone back to work yet, so that's okay. It's okay until Friday, and that's when I have to like actually get myself back onto UK time.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, no worries. Jet lag after after all the work you guys did.
SPEAKER_05But then it's great for development because then no distractions in the middle of the night, so you know, I'm just uh coding away and you know, no one's around, which is great.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Uh no, I've I've tried it in the past, previous lines of employment, worked some pretty odd hours, and it's just I don't know. Maybe it's a Johnny thing, guys. It just yeah, I'm totally cool with that. But it's like my brain, my brain, no matter where I'm at in the world, Dubai, wherever, like my brain just shuts off on in US time at night, and it's just I don't know. I mean, there's no amount of coffee, no amount of caffeine in the world that could bring it back.
SPEAKER_02But when it says it's time to go to bed, it's time to go to bed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we are getting older, man.
SPEAKER_05You know, until 21, the power of you.
SPEAKER_00No, no worries, no worries. But the usual flow for our guests, I I think because since we do handle, you know, we discuss real world aviation as well as white simulation topics.
A Jellyfish Sparks A Flying Career
SPEAKER_00I I think the first question, you know, I wanted to touch on with you, Katie, was what was your what was your first foray into aviation? What you know brought you, uh brought you into the industry.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'd I think so I I've I've kind of searched by my soul a bit about this because I've kind of wondered what exactly kicked it off because none of my family fly like my granddad was did some national service and stuff in the air force, but apart from that, like no one in my family's flown, no, there's kind of no tie-in to aviation. The only thing I can think of, and this is this is the weirdest story to have happened, but when I was nine, I must have been nine, we f it was just after 2001. So it was in October 2001. Weren't allowed into the flight deck, obviously, and we flew on holiday. And on that holiday, I got stung by a jellyfish. Now, that is probably you're going, how on the earth does this link into you going into flying? But I was stung by a jellyfish, right? And that ruined the entire holiday because of the fact sorry, vacation for your American viewers. Um the that that meant that you know, my my whole arm was in a cast or like you know, bandages and things like that. And basically, I couldn't enjoy the holiday, I couldn't do any of the activities, couldn't go in the pool, couldn't do anything. And so my entire holiday was a little bit rubbish, really. So then and all I was excited for was the plane ride home because I'd never been on a plane before apart from the way over, and I remember loving it. And and then so from that moment I got home and I was like, that was the coolest thing. When can I go on a plane again? And then my parents you could always just like you know, you can work on a plane when you're older. Like, oh, that's a good idea. So it's I I put it down to that jellyfish, which is so I I don't know where it is now, but yeah, but I put it down to that jellyfish is what caused my foray into aviation.
SPEAKER_00Shout out to the jellyfish.
SPEAKER_02Shout out.
SPEAKER_00No, no worries. No, it's it's interesting you bring that up, Katie, because you know, it's it was most of most individuals I asked that, uh even some uh even some uh some individuals I've worked with, it was either like you know, they come from a long lineage of aviators, and you know, yeah, my dad was like, you know, the Wright brothers' cousin or something, you know, some of them just um you know, just semantics, whatever. And but for me, it was like, you know, no one really thought about an airplane. You know, I didn't fly my first my first flight was going to basic training, and you know, our vacation is like we didn't even vacation to go, you know, flying anywhere. So no, it was just that's interesting that that you you know that you bring that up. So it's and it's it's it's you know, it's kind of a funny, interesting thing here.
Why Development Complements Airline Flying
SPEAKER_00So you have aviation, but you also have this aspect of you that seems you know that loves development. Did that yeah, that kind of come hand in hand or or uh how does that work?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so I think um the development side, so when when you're flying an airliner, it's it's not very creative, right? Because, well, if you're getting creative when you're flying an airliner, something has probably gone wrong. Um so on on an on a normal day of work, it's a very, you know, I know what the first officer's doing, first officer knows what I'm doing, the crew know what we're doing, like and and it just kind of no day is the same, but it's it can be very like predictable. Sure. But it doesn't mean there's no creativity at all. So it is it's very structured. One thing I love about development is just the the creativity side of it and just being able to go, you know what, I want to make this, so I'm gonna make it. And and I think like I did look into doing some development with like creating stuff for real-world aviation, but that also comes with its own rigidity because of the fact that the because of the regulation and things like that, which obviously you know, everything you do needs to be regulated, it needs to be like approved. Whereas with flight sim, as long as you are you know respecting people's intellectual property and you are you know respecting Eulas and things like that, you you can basically make whatever you want as long as it, like I said, as long as it is within the rules, which is the the rule set is pretty big, but as long as you're you know you're respecting people's IP and things like that, then then you can kind of just go ahead and and and create what you want. And I think with a background in aviation, that lends itself to flight sim in particular, because of the fact that you know we kind of know what a real what a day in the life of a pilot looks like, and therefore you can kind of translate that to the sim.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. No, that's that that's a very interesting perspective for sure, because you don't see that often. I uh worked in the online industry many, many a moon ago, and most of my counterparts or my teammates, their hobbies were like hunting, fishing. There is one guy who liked curling. I just now figured out what the heck that was.
SPEAKER_04Really?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, like I I never knew that was a thing, man. I know everybody's probably everybody's in the chat's like, what?
SPEAKER_05That's the game, right? With the like the little wall thing, yeah. I call them the brooms and the stones. But they're like polishing, polishing the floor, yeah, yeah. Some random reasons Scotland are really good at in the Olympics. I don't know why, but they're fantastic, right? Right, you know, and so you talk about how do you get into development and how do you get into aviation, but like how do you get into curling?
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00My question.
SPEAKER_05Who grows up and goes, That's my thing?
SPEAKER_00Yep. You know, I'm I'm totally gonna do that out of all the distractions and things. I I I don't know. To this day, and that was like almost 20 years ago, to this day, like I I still hadn't figured it out.
SPEAKER_05Do you think they're like polishing the floor in their like you know, in their house, and they're like, Oh, I've got I'm quite good at this.
SPEAKER_00You're like waxing the floor or something, and it's like, oh wow, I just I don't get it. I don't know. Unless they're trying to make stone in the mix. Well, Charlie, you do bowl. Like, did you know about the curling thing?
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, yeah. I saw it on TV one time. I'm like, what the is this? Okay, why are these people like buffing ice? I'll be low-key kind of got into it, bro. I was like, Yeah, you're trying to figure out what is going on. Okay, they hit this stone now. That is just uh uh oh my goodness. Oh my goodness, guys.
SPEAKER_00I'll fall on my face, break the mop, whatever. Oh dude, it's terrible. Like hence rollerblades and skates, man. Good. Totally good for a pass. Oh my goodness. So Katie, so you mentioned, you know, especially with your real world background, understanding, you know, workflows and things of that nature.
Fixing Audio Chaos And Tool Overload
SPEAKER_00At what point, you know, between your your um your real world job and your flight simulation hobby, did you sit down and say we really need a you know holistic solution to better a summer's workflow?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so not 99% of my development projects, and I don't know if you've seen the audio normalizer that I came out with, it's on flightsum.to but not 99% of my projects come out of they're born out of frustration on my own part. So like I and I don't know if I don't know if you know the story behind the normalizer, but I've I've done a stream and I spent the entire stream. I think we had air traffic control the whole way on Vatsim. And when you're streaming, I'm sure you guys, you know, are aware that when you're when you're actually on a podcast or you're streaming, like you kind of need no distractions because it can be quite consuming. Absolutely. And when I was I was doing the stream, an air traffic control just coming in my ears at the various different levels.
SPEAKER_04Oh, so aggravating.
SPEAKER_05And so, like, you've got one partner who comes in super quiet, and then so you then have to turn it up, and then the air traffic controller replies, and they're really loud, and then you just have your ears, and all my my viewers were going, Oh my god, it's like so loud, or then it's really quiet. And so she came off the stream, and I was like, Right, that's it. So I just drew it up and and and and made this program, which yeah, it's not perfect, but it does the job. And um, I was like, you know what, given I've I've made it for myself, I might as well just put it on flightsim.to it seems like loads of people got got some benefit out of it, and and that's very much the same with EFBX, which is is the same sort of thing where I was I was swimming and and I was just like why is that? I mean, it's fantastic. We have so many add-on products, especially since Microsoft came out with 2020 and 2024. The the amount of add-ons has just exploded. And I was just finding just to get a flight going, I had to have so many open and so many. I thought, oh, it's where is that again? Um is that on this window? And and then I'd be like, I was because I have two computers as well that run in parallel. Is that on this computer or is that on that computer? And and I was like, it kind of took the fun out of it for me. Because I was like, I kind of almost felt like I needed to, or you you need to be a developer to make stuff work. And it's it's it's silly stuff as well. So, like, you know, when there are some like EFBs within aircraft that you can pull out of the sim and you can bring it onto your iPad or your phone and things like that, but you still need to go hunting for an IP address, right? And you still need to do like port, like unblocking ports and making sure things. So I was like, even that, I was like, that's a little bit frustrating. I just want plug and play, I just want to be able to load up, you know, scan a QR code and just go and just have have it work. So, and obviously, every developer does everything a little bit different. And I was like, we're never gonna get to this place unless we all kind of try and work together. So essentially FBX, as much as it is its only FB, it's very much a platform for developers to kind of come to a common place and then have one common platform where everyone can just kind of basically collaborate. And and I think like, and and actually, some of the conversations I've had with some developers have been really positive, and people are on side to do that. So I I think it's it's very much kind of initially started out of frustration of just having everything everywhere, and now it's kind of grown into something that actually is, I think it is really exciting. I'm certainly excited about it else that I am.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely. The buzz in the community is on fire with this with the software. Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Because I think we all have the same sentiment, right? It's like yeah, I can't. You know, I've been man, like being in the industry since like FS98, even back then, there were like 90 different applications you had to run, and you know, just plogging your PC up. Oh, yeah, you know, and and it's and that's fine when you're 16 and have that kind of time, but you know, for for me, you know, my time in the sim is you know finite. So um trying to, you know, hey, I'm gonna do a little quick hour, you know, hour trip. And it's like, okay, let me get V pilot or X pilot up, let me do this, let me do that. And then and finally by the time you done, I think I did a meme on that on Instagram one day, Charlie. Yeah, when I was born and you know, and degraded. I think I did a meme on that, but you know, there's like 90 different things open, and you know, and heaven forbid something crashes, you know, like how frustrating is that?
SPEAKER_05When you hear that, it's when you hear that something somewhere, especially like now. Well, with with all the hardware we have as well, like you know, something unplugs, you're like, Oh yeah, oh and then we'll freeze.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god, your the whole system will freeze, and otherwise for me, it's just straight C T D. So it's like that's two and a half hours wasted.
SPEAKER_01Oh sure.
SPEAKER_00Or heaven forbid, which by the way, Mike is out, Leda sends us sends his regards, but our kind of our kind of our kind of part Mike, he does a lot of long hauls, right? So, you know, I mean they're you know, we've we've been in the chat where you know it'll be like a you know 10 plus hour long haul, five hours in, you know, it's like a CBP to know that EFPX doesn't run on Wasm, so we're good that oh my gosh, game changer, game changer. But yeah, I think we can all we can all relate in in that aspect there.
EFBX As A Shared Platform
SPEAKER_00So, you know, part um part of EFBX from you know what I've been reading is it's this uh ecosystem, right? So, you know, you're you're you know you have partnerships that you work with, you know, which the list is pretty extensive already. What's the reception been like for third-party developers? Are they been like, yeah, let's go, or are they kind of looking at you with a side eye, like, how's this gonna work?
SPEAKER_05Or it's funny because so when the project first started, I think there was quite a bit of skepticism. Well, what is this? I don't really understand. Well, we're too busy doing our own development, and that's totally understandable. If someone out of nowhere comes up to you and says, like, hey, I'm trying to make this thing, you know, like can you get involved? And they're like, Well, actually, we're so busy. Um, and I and I did understand that, albeit quite frustrating, obviously, as a developer trying to make something happen. But I think once kind of it's it's now gained a bit of traction and people are understanding it too. And I think that that's the biggest thing because when when we first announced it, everyone was like, Well, I've already got an EFB, and every aircraft comes an EFB, so like, why do I need another one? And it's like, yeah, I know and I get that. I don't I don't want to make people have something else extra on their computer, like, you know, because that's not what this is about. It's actually about removing kind of all of that clutter. And that's why we're interfacing with so many aircraft. And as it's grown and gained some traction, the community, uh the development community have been a lot quicker to get on on side. And and certainly since expo, I have to say, expo is probably the best. It's fantastic from a ex from an attendee perspective, from but from an exhibitor perspective, for the for the the seeing someone, you know, having a drink with someone uh from another development studio and just saying, Hey, like we're doing this. Do you think you might be interested? And a lot of people, to be fair, these days, now they're just like, Yeah, actually, I've been meaning to reach out to you, and and that that's fantastic, you know.
SPEAKER_04And that's cool.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's it's really cool. And and and in fact, one of the developers, I felt really perdically. So one of the developers sent me an email, it ended up in my spam. They will remain, they will remain unnamed, but they ended up in my spam. And and and I was just going through my spam because I uh especially when you have an open inbox for like you know the wider community, you do need to have a kind of keep an eye on it. And um, I saw this one, I was like, oh, who's that? Clicked on it, and and it was a developer who wants to integrate with our with our flight bag, which thankfully I replied and it is now integrated and it's all working perfectly. But wow, I was like, oh my god, imagine if I just hadn't checked my spam that day. That could that partnership could have either never happened or they might have just like disliked the product from that moment because oh well, I never got a reply. So I suppose my my message to any developers out there is if I don't reply, please send another one because I do I do check my spams, but it's just not as often as I should.
SPEAKER_04So you heard it here for first, folks. Check your spam folder.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, check a spam fold. Some massive some amazing opportunities might end up in your spam.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, exactly. Yep, that and yeah, I've noticed that for me. Like, I've had a lot of issues with my spam, like something like stupidly important. It's like, oh my gosh, how did that get in there? You know, the algorithm algorithms just aren't algorithming for me or something. I don't know. Exactly.
Turning Real Pilot Workflow Into Sim
SPEAKER_00No, but going back to to your real world experience, Katie. Do have you seen like a parallel between the electronic flight backs that you know you use on the line and you know a lot of the FBs that you see in the sim. Do you see a kind of a parallel there? Um in terms of like workflow, you know, or some similarities, some sim similarities there?
SPEAKER_05I I do to a degree. I think then obviously when a developer is making the FB for the flights and they have to flight simify it because just purely because of the fact that I mean that the environment you're in, it's it's not a real aircraft, as sad as you know, sad as that is to say. Um but it but it means that you know things like managing doors and payloads and things like that clearly in real life just doesn't happen. I don't get I don't have a chart with a you know like a a weight and balance thing in your and your your where your zero few sorry where your CGs are and all that sort of stuff, like because that just doesn't, you know, the the the the EFBs are not tied to the aircraft, like we'd we don't we don't have a weight and balance readout from the aircraft and things like that. We just get a paper load sheet that we basically get told this is correctly loaded, right? And that's essentially what we're trying to do with the FBX is kind of bring it sim keep it simplified because of the fact that it needs to be, but also bring us back to that kind of like what's a real life workflow like and actually trying to turn it into trying to turn it into what a real life pilot C FB is, and and for me, like literally, and this is no coincidence, it's literally here in front of. Me, I always have it with me, like it's just always with me because there might be some overtime alerts that come through, or I might get an email, or like there might be some new notice that comes out that I have to read. And obviously, I don't want to be doing that the night before I go back to work after just having time off work and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01For sure.
SPEAKER_05So it's kind of like it is a pilot's Bible. Like you just you just have it with you pretty much all the time. And and if ever, I mean, the amount of times you know, you'll be in a hotel downright, and you'll you'll be looking around kind of people having food, having their breakfast or whatever. And and you'll see people just sat there on their iPads, and you're like, they're pilots, you can tell they're pilots because they're you know they're they're managing their roster or they're doing, you know, and and that is basically how how it is in real life. Like these things are literally with us all the time. And that's what I've tried to bring to EFPX, where essentially it can run without the sim being there, it just runs, but then it runs over your network. So you can have have it on your phone, have it on your iPad or whatever whatever device you have, Android tablet, you can just have it with you. And then you can, you know, you can do all the kind of the planning, the briefing, exactly the same as we do at work. You know, I I don't see an aircraft until I've looked at the flight, briefed it, ordered the fuel, been through my notices. Like I've I've I've basically, before I even see an aircraft, I've done an hour and a half's worth of work at work, you know. So, you know, I and that's that's where I've touched an aircraft. Obviously, I can't imagine simmers will want to be spending an hour and a half before they go flying. But what you can do, and this is the idea of it, is the fact that you can you can use it before you get to your sim, you can launch a sim from your tablet or or whatever. So then by the time you do actually get to your sim, it's there waiting for you. You've you've done kind of your your prep, and then you get to the aircraft. And that's kind of that whole workflow that I'm trying to bring to Simmers. The other thing is the fact that our EFBs at work are very unique to us. So while we do have company apps that we can install, we also have we have it in our own way. Like we have you have the apps that you want installed. Like I obviously have uh I use a down read when I'm in the hotel room. So I have some entertainment apps on there, or I'll have I'll obviously have the work apps and things like that, but there's some other things I use. Yeah, I've got the news on there, and that's kind of where I was like, oh, hold on, we can integrate with FS, like flights and news, you know, so FS Elite and Threshold and all that sort of stuff. So we have is so if you you know, if they post a news story and you've if you have say say the FS Elite application installed, if they post a news story, you get a pop-up. In fact, I've got it right here 57 minutes ago. Caronado announced the Dornia 228 for Microsoft Flights in 2024, and that was coming from Threshold. But it's but but that's the thing, it's literally right there. And I'm like, oh, so as I'm developing, I'm keeping up to date with the news, and that's you know, obviously for simmers or when they're flying, like you know, they'll get a notification to say some some news has happened, and and that's kind of again, so it's it's kind of taking it away from just this is an EFB that controls your aircraft and does calculations and and basically is a glorified calculator, which is a lot of what a lot of the EFBs in Flight Zim are. And this is taking it kind of zooming out even further and say, actually, this is something that is gonna be your you know, this is gonna be your flight sim bible, and you're gonna use it for everything. And I I think that the the hardest sell I've or the hardest thing I've been trying to kind of get across is that mindset change in the Zim community because I think people just go, well, an EFB is is basically like I said, a glorified calculator, and this is so much more than that. And I and I think that's what I'm trying to get across all with with varying degrees of success.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. No, that's very well said, and total totally get that. Like I said, I'm I'm super excited. Uh actually, there was a question from practically geek, which was a really good question. Will EFBX replace the other tablets? Katie, did Phoenix one so will her new one replace that if you buy it, etc.?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so so the Phoenix, like obviously the the EFBs within your aircraft will remain like it's that that's fine.
SPEAKER_04Um attached to it, basically.
SPEAKER_05It's yeah, so um, but what it means is that whatever aircraft you jump into, you can use the same EFB and you just have EFPX or you have you know when you're desktop, iPad, whatever. And but we also had do have so any any EFB that can be exposed over the network as well, we have that installed too. So for example, if you did want to use a if there was some function you needed to use in the Phoenix, for example, you could just open the Phoenix app, it's there. You'd have to mess around with ports and IPs and stuff, it's just there, and you can and you can just use it that way. So, like we're not we're not necessarily saying that it needs to be replaced, although I did a flight yesterday and I didn't touch an EFB and in-game EFB, I just use my own, and that was like it's it's quite fun energy because wow when when you when you kind of do a flight like that and then you go back to the old way of doing it, and some of my elf testers will be testing to that, and and they're like, because some of them are streamers, so obviously when they stream, they're like, Well, I can't use it, and they and they off they come off the stream and they go, I can't do this, I can't do it without it anymore. Like it's just completely different mindset, and and what obviously when I hear them say that, I'm like, that's amazing. I'm so happy. Like, you guys are here enjoying it. And and and one of my favorite things as well is like when I bring on board a new tester and I jump on a call with them and I get them set up, and I'm like, right, have just play. And to hear and the same at expert to be to hear people, people be like hearing the excitement, like when I show them something and you'd hear them go, whoa! I was like, how can you get that excited about an EFB? But the that that if that's their reaction, then then that makes me super excited for like when we when we release.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Well, well, it means it's game changing, right? I mean, I again going back to you know what we were discussing before as relates to you know having you know all these multiple applications going on and taking it and condensing it to like an iPad or mobile phone, or let's say you got that long haul, and you know, we got to go run to the store or something like that, or you know, for me, I get like a honeydew and get to go to the local hardware store because you know, kids broke something, whatever. You know, it it's it's super advantageous to be able to look at you know the uh my EFB and like, oh okay, this is where I'm at, or or what have you. You know, just having that flexibility and uh portability for me, I think it's gonna be a huge, absolutely huge. Looks like there's another question as well, which I believe it does have GSX integration, but I'll let you answer
Remote GSX, ATC, And Screenshots
SPEAKER_00that, Katie. Has yep, the GSX integration.
SPEAKER_05It it does indeed, yeah. So uh and and this is again interlinked with us. So we have two things in there. So we have one is any uh a GSX app, which is kind of essentially the controllers that you know and love if you want to just directly control GSX through the the GSX remote app. So it's it is quite cool pushing your aircraft back or calling a fueler and stuff, like from your phone, or it kind of feels a bit more realistic, actually. Almost like you're calling a dispatcher, say hey, like can we can we get some fuel? Can we get you know that almost feels feels like we'll get a sandwich and some chips?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_05You say that just slight tangent. There is a destination on our network where we literally like send an email before we depart London and we say, Hey, can you bring some uh gyros? You know, the Greek like gyroscope. Right, little sandwiches, yeah. Yeah, and then there's a there's a takeaway like next door to the airport, and on arrival, they will literally go get it, they'll ferry it through security to you. You give them some money and a tip and stuff, and literally we're like on the turnaround, you're having gyros. So oh that's awesome. It's if if I could do that in Flight Sim, I would like to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yep, there you go.
SPEAKER_05But yeah, so go going back to the GSX integration. So we have the GSX app itself, which you can just use the same kind of a method you'd would in like the in Sim panel, basically. But we also have it integrated with our briefing app as well. So when you're briefing, and the way it the way our workflow works, um when we when I get to work, you know, I said we brief the flight and we decide on the fuel figure. Like that is kind of like the the last thing we do before we head to the aircraft. We we agree on a fuel figure, we press order, that then tells the dispatcher, it tells the load control, it's it tells anyone who needs to know how much fuel we need, how much fuel we want. And the idea of EFPX's briefing app is you basically do that and we do the rest, and it handles GSX, it handles like the boarding and loading, and and and it just happens in the background, which allows you then to jump in the aircraft, do your flow in the same time that passengers are getting on board, the fuel is all happening, like so. You don't have to break your workflow because you need to deal with GSX, it just does it for you. And and that to me, it it saves so much, so much like faffing around, basically. It just allows me to get on with with programming the McDo, thinking about the departure, having think, okay, you know, what's the stop altitude and who am I gonna contact and what's the taxi routing gonna look like, which is exactly the same as how it works in real life. We've we we spend the time while the passengers are getting on board and the fuel's coming on board, we spend time setting up the aircraft and then briefing what we're gonna do. That's what I'm trying to get to to basically become people's workflow.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_05Which I'm hoping it'll happen.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, I mean it looks like you're well, well on your way. Because I know we myself, Charlie, Mike, we actually had the opportunity to you were actually going to eat because you you know you had a hard time trying to so you were going to eat. We I think we met you for like a couple of seconds. She was like, uh, you're like, I'm so sorry, I gotta go eat.
SPEAKER_04I gotta go eat before I pass out, right? Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Go eat.
SPEAKER_05There was one point when some one of the streamers came over and was like, Hey, can you just do me a demo? And I was like, not right now. I I'm so sorry. I was like, I'm gonna, I think I might pass out. So give me like 10 minutes and then I will. But please just give me 10 minutes. It was so phononic expo.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no. Shout out, but shout out to to the gentleman who helped us out. He gave us a really amazing demo. But just I I felt for me, it really because I because I first first heard of you during when uh Phoenix first dropped their A3 A320, and you know, we fired it up and looked at the CFP, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, like this, like where did this come from? Yeah, it was it was like it was it was game changing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_05And that and that's I remember when it when it came out, and I remember just kind of like it, it it wasn't because I was trying to like make waves in the community either. It was literally, I was like, all I want to do is make something that reflects what we have at work, um, and also is just kind of user-friendly. Quite often, quite often developers have made EFBs that whilst they have loads of information on there and loads of technical stuff, I don't I never look at it. And half the time, even as a real pilot, I look at some of these numbers they pump out on the performance calculator, and I go, I have no idea what that means because it it's not relevant to me as a pilot, right? As an engineer, maybe like an engineer might look at it and go, oh yeah, you know, the to know the the differential of pressure on top of the wing is this, you know. I don't know, but like it doesn't matter to me as a pilot. All I'm gonna do is yeah, all I really care about is like, will my aircraft take off on this runway? And the answer is yes, great. What what speed do I need to rotate at? Stuff like that. So that's why we kind of like decided to go down the kind of user-friendly route. And I think what is quite nice is the fact that a lot of other developers I think have taken that ethos as well. Like when they've looked at kind of it feels like the Phoenix E FB has inspired some other ones as well, which is like that's that gives that gives me a lot of a lot of pride, really, in my work because when when when you're inspiring other people to do that, like I mean, hey, maybe they had the idea themselves, I don't know. But when they're when they're um, you know, when you can see similarities or like an idea that so, for example, you know, drawing on the charts. That was something that had never been done until we did it with Phoenix, and now I see it pretty much everywhere. And that to see that happening in a lot of other EFBs and a lot of other applications, that's pretty cool. That's really nice to see.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. Just to uh grab Ralph's uh question here and shout out to Ralph. Ralph, bro about BatSim integration. Can the EFBX be used to quickly tune ATC frequencies similar to Flyby Wires tablet?
SPEAKER_05It can, yeah. It's it's it's got a link up to v Pilot. It not only does that, but it also relays messages too. So, like if you are away from your computer and maybe you've like popped to the kitchen and you've taken your phone with you, if you get a DM, like a not a DM, what they call the like a private message, say contact me, you'll get your phone, we'll do the bit, and you can then you'll be like, oh no, I've got to get back to my computer because someone's trying to contact me. We also have that some replay as well, which is where if you miss your call, you can press play and it'll play back the last transmission that was that was transmitted. So, and you can do that on your phone too. So, like again, you don't have to, or your phone or your your iPad, so you don't it doesn't have to be on your screen either. It can literally be in front of you. And and just having kind of it again, it's those user-friendly things that I know for me when I'm simming, I miss calls all the time. So I was like, how can I how can I make something that allows me to basically stop missing calls? And so I was like, well, hold on, if I and and actually that was born out of the normalizer because it uses technology to the normalizer. So a lot of you know, development's a lot about like sort of having doing some work and then going, oh, actually that would work in in here and stuff like that. So there's so for example with normalizer, the plan is to have that as parts of EFPX too. So if you want to run your audio through there and stuff, you can. And some of that is it's kind of yeah, it's it's it's so it's a vacuum integration, yes, with lots of bells and whistles.
SPEAKER_00Holy smokes, yeah. Finding those, you know, I think that's what's you know, that's what's awesome with the direction you're going, in my opinion. You know, being sensitive to the you know, the needs and looking at it from a simmers perspective, you know, being software development in the healthcare industry, we we get that a lot. A lot of times things are developed from the perspective of the developer, and that's when you that's when you get software that's like complete trash. It's like, oh my gosh, the UI is terrible. Like, who did this front end? And and it's not until you know you bring in, you know, RNs, bring in, you know, providers and get their feedback, and you know, you take that feedback and design the front end, but it's it's as if you know you've eliminated all that, you know, from the aviation perspective, right? You know, that was my first that was my first impression, you know, well when I saw the Flight Some Expo was how clean it looked. I was like, man, it looks like um one one thing I love in particular is like the the screenshots app.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if you got a chance to see the screenshots app at all.
SPEAKER_04No, did we catch calls? I don't remember seeing that.
SPEAKER_05So so that there's there's some stuff that probably you wouldn't have seen at Expo purely because of the fact that like time was so tight. Like honestly, one of the one of the hardest things I found was like sharing the FPX in enough detail with somebody without kind of basically spending you know two hours with somebody and boring them. Because you can spend hours going through this. Uh, there are so many features, but like for example, if I should show you on my this is on my phone, but this is our this is our screenshots app.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_05Oh you can do, you know, you can that button there, oops, sorry, that button there literally takes screenshots. So if I was in the sit, if I'm I don't know, do I have the sim up right now? I mean to hold on, let's see. Sure, sure. So I'm currently I'm currently sat on the runway. But if I just like press, if I literally just press that button there, you'll see, did you see that? So like and then you can obviously you can do filters, you can do like crossing, get ready for Instagram and stuff. But the but the point is literally like we just took a screenshot from my phone because I've got the sim up right there. So wow, it's kind of hard to to give you a demo, but if I if I just delete it for one sec, I'll try one more time. There we go. So I just deleted that, and then if I I'm gonna try and press the button and it'll appear. There we go.
SPEAKER_00It's crazy. Holy crap! Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_05Um but that but I think that's that's the point, and that's that's the kind of connectivity that that we're trying to go for here. It's like, and that is obviously such a minor thing, but it's like I know the simmers love taking screenshots, they love to be able to like manipulate them with various different softwares and and filters and things like that, and then posting them on on socials. And so I was like, well, of course I would do that, you know, and but but then to be able to take it remotely means that like you could only you don't have to press print screen and then go to some other application, like it's on your phone already, so you can you could be flying along and you can literally manipulate it on your phone there, and then you could and then you could send it. Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So wow, no, I no, absolutely, yeah, that makes total sense. All I can say, Charlie, Mike, the our little chat group is about to be inundated with screenshots. Do you guys know how difficult it is to like print screen and then the print the little the little cursor doesn't always grab it, so you're like crap, you know, like cursing trying to get that perfect, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05But it's essentially inspired by like your camera app, right. Because I was like, because in the initially when I was like making EFB, I was like, oh well, hold on a second, like I could, you know, how am I gonna do a camera app? And I was like, hold on, screenshots, of course. So then I was like, basically, I'm just gonna make an app that looks like your camera role, but it's just screenshots instead.
SPEAKER_00For sure. That's cool, for sure, for sure. Question from Dougle McTabage what protocol is used to communicate between devices?
App Store Vision And Security Checks
SPEAKER_05So it's it's all going over your local network. So it's all an HTTP. So it's it's just yeah, it's literally it creates a local web server on your host computer and then just pushes pushes all of the information out over that network. So hence you can you you can run it off of your local devices. So the benefit of running a local web server is it means that it can interact with your sim and can also interact with other devices on your network. So it's it it means that you don't have the like if we ran it in a if we ran it online, for example, like if we were efbx.io or if we were like account.exefx.io, then that wouldn't be able to read into your sim because of security reasons. Obviously, you wouldn't have a website looking into your application, but because you have EFBX running on your on your local computer, that allows you to then you know connect into your sim. But also then we can we also have our own online APIs, so it can speak to that too. So there is some stuff online, there's some stuff on your computer, but it kind of bridges that gap. But yeah, it's it's simply speaking, it's a web server that runs on your computer, but it's a bit well for thousand lines, thousands of lines of code suggests it's probably a bit more complicated than that.
SPEAKER_04But well, absolutely, just the back side of that. I mean, there's a lot going on in the background.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, absolutely. No, that's that's actually a really good question. Oh, another good question here from practically geekment. Shout out to you guys, man. Love the interaction in the chat, appreciate it. Yeah, um keep it at what is what is the quality of the screenshot, like as far as resolution?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, same as in resolution, it just it literally takes a screen grab of your sim and then puts it in a folder. So um, yeah, it's it there's there, there's no loss. Uh well, not that I've noticed. I'm sure some someone will come along and say, Oh, if there's a you know, it's it's lost somewhere that I don't yeah, I don't know. In my eye, I've not been able to notice like you know any loss. Like I said, I'm sure I'm sure a tester may be able to tell me, or actually someone with a better eye than me that might be able to tell me, and hey, we'll look at it. But at the moment, to my eye, it it it looks pretty, pretty solid.
SPEAKER_00So no worries. Another good question from Ralph is there a social network on the FBS? Can we add view chat with our friends?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, at the minute, just in the stage of development we are, that doesn't exist, but it is very much there is an aspiration for that to happen because I think it is important. I think people love people love sharing screenshots, people love tracking each other's flights, and um in actually fact I was doing a flight with a a tester yesterday, and we literally were we were just look because we were just testing some stuff in the tracking app, and he just goes. Huh, see any downside to this? I can't stalk you. And uh and I was like, no, you will be able to, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00No, no worries, no worries. Yeah, okay, Charlie. So I'm not the only one. So yeah. So you're not the only one who stalks me. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'll take a picture. I'll take a picture of like Johnny Flyde and send him a meme.
SPEAKER_05It's like, see, it's also it's also when someone's been like, Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not available to like hang out with you, and then you see them on like Valanta, and you're like, excuse me, you told me you weren't free.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Happens. We call it low-key flying. So, like, oh yeah, but we're busy, and you know, well, why are you doing like a 12-hour flight? Yeah when we're supposed to be at work, Charlie, but we're not because we're you know totally shooting this shooting that approach in the JFK. Yeah, but but no, all good points. That was actually gonna kind of lead into a question I had as far as you know, I know you know, you know, I know right now you guys are like elbows deep into development, but you know, if there was you know some things you wanted to share with the audience in terms of you know, maybe a future role map down row, like what do you guys are kind of you know bouncing around with or you know, anything like that.
Roadmap, Features, And Release Timing
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think um I think in terms of like roadmap and stuff, see we've we're planning for releasing Q4, so that's kind of the biggest milestone for us at the moment working towards. The one thing that's kind of worth noting is like when it does come out, I know every single time I show someone or someone gets their hands on it, they are filled with ideas of good, oh you know, we could do this, and and hey, that is amazing, and I love the excitement. The app store itself will be obviously a finite set of apps when we launch because people just haven't had a chance to to develop stuff. Very similar to like when a new sim comes out, new aircraft and stuff. So whilst we do have apps ourselves, the idea is it will grow. And so I I think like if from a roadmap perspective, I can I can definitely say though it will grow. What it will grow into will very much depend on developer buy-in and community buy-in as well. So like the more people that use it, the more leverage we'll have with other developers and with people who want to make things for the app store. So so it it kind of that's probably the politicians' answer for like what the road looks like. But it's only because only because kind of it entirely depends on buy-in from both the community and the development community.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. No, that makes total sense.
SPEAKER_05But the the crowd, the green sheets are there, certainly, because there are developers and people in the community that I mean, I won't I won't divulge how many people we have now on our access list, but there's quite a few. And I I'm genuinely like so overwhelmed and so humbled by how many people are backing the project. So I think I would say the future's bright, certainly, for how how this will go in the future.
SPEAKER_00Oh, too cool, too cool. Oh, Ralph Lakami. That one friend in the long haul group flight that fell asleep at top of descent, been doing holding patterns. Oh, yeah, our car is like permanently stuck in that procedure turn and hold.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's actually talking about how that ends with the roadmap. There is a feature which is coming, which is, and again, all of these are like toggleable, so it's not like you don't have to have it. Sure. Alert at top of descent will be a thing. So, like if you're coming up towards your top of descent and you what you want to be told about it, will basically have an alarm to be like, Hey, be aware.
SPEAKER_01Did you forget me? Did you forget me? Um guilty.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, that doesn't exist at the moment, but that's certainly on our on our list of of things to do.
SPEAKER_00Too cool, too cool. Another question I have for you. I'm sorry, just to kind of inundate you with questions like as we're talking, it's kind of popping my mind there. I love let's say, for example, you know, me and Charlie have a virtual airline, and uh, we come to you and want to do like a virtual Southwest skin or something like that for for the EFB. And again, that may be you know down the road type of thing, or you know, what have you. Is that you know, is that something that's you know kind of been on your guys' radar as of yet, or you know, is the situation backgrounds and stuff or exactly customizations, things of that nature.
SPEAKER_05Like a southwest background. Um yeah, so so we have we have custom backgrounds, that's all all in there. You can we have like some stock ones, we can have it tied to your sim brief as well if you want it to be. So, like if you're flying Southwest or you're flying Delta or whoever, you can have it tied to your sim brief. So when you load up, your background will change depending on who you're flying for. And and also we have custom ones as well. So you can just upload, like if you want a picture of your family or your cat, your dog, or whatever, you can just do that as well.
SPEAKER_04Oh, too cool.
SPEAKER_01That's cool.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so so it's kind of thing things like quality of life stuff. I think the one thing I've tried to not forget about while we've been developing this is kind of the nice to have things that just people, it's a little like you know, to be able to change your background is a little thing, but I think people do appreciate it and do like it.
SPEAKER_00So absolutely no, it's and I'm I'm guilty of it as well because I've I've always been kind of like, you know, yeah, whatever. But Mike, you'll Mike does keep me honest, it's like you know, little small quality of life things, and you know, once you try it out, and it's like okay, it's pretty nice, then you get used to it, and then you're like wondering, you know, what the heck you do about it. I mean, that's yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm totally guilty of it.
SPEAKER_05And it's it's little things as well. So, like again, I kind of show you, but absolutely. So I have this, we have this thing where literally if you want a scratch pad, like an immediate scratch pad, you just swipe across from the left and you have your scratch pad, and it's things like that, just to have that kind of like really kind of easy, accessible, you know, kind of way of working. And and that that's just because I know when I'm flying along and I'm swimming, I'm always needing to jot things down, and so to be able to have just a scratch pad that's just there is super helpful. And and and so it's it's like you know, that that's something that hey, we didn't have to do, but actually it's such a quality of life thing that that I think people people appreciate for sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, good place to write down that Uber Eats order, Johnny. Yeah, I'm telling you, I'm telling you my Uber Eats order.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was you know, and it's funny we joke about that, but man, that's so real. Oh my gosh, man, how many times like I just don't want to leave the sound and wife's like, what are we gonna eat? It's like, hold on, you know.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, or do like mine, and then you know, every time you're at top of drop, that dinner's ready. Every time, or breakfast, whatever it might be. Exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's you know, I think in terms of you know, where we have come from thus far, you know, these past several years have just been insane in terms of the movement in the industry. I guess the I guess uh, you know, I guess a question I you know want to ask you as well, Charlie, where do you guys see, do you guys see the, you know, with all these different applications and Katie's platform that she's working on, do you guys see at some point, you know, we're we eventually looking or looking at like a unified platform to where you know it's just like a one-stop shop for everything? Because I and and again, you know, I I find myself, you know, you there's all these nice to have applications, right? And you know, at some point, you know, where where does it stop? Because it's hard to choose between, you know, it's like, man, I want this, you know, I want GSX, I got to have VPalot, I got to have this and that and the other. I just, you know, I know just to kind of get my little personal opinion out of the way, I really think Katie's endeavor is definitely gonna be a huge benefit to the community. You know, I'm I know it's gonna be a day one pickup for me. What about you, Charlie?
SPEAKER_04Oh, a hundred percent. And just what I think she's building with this program, that collaboration aspect between developers is key to me. Because, you know, that's just gonna make each one of them kind of push each other a little bit harder and just make the overall community kind of join, where it's like, oh well, we're over here and we're not doing that. You know what I'm saying? Make it more of a joint community effort for sure.
SPEAKER_05The one thing is I'll just to kind of add in that with like developers working together. I don't know if like you noticed or have noticed the last few expos where developers are like, oh, I think it's like at FS We Can, for example, PMDG had a wind control force feedback yoke on their stand, and then like you know, there's various different developers, they're like supporting each other, and when people do that, amazing things happen. And I think that's very much again the mindset of just kind of like trying to bring people together, and and and as much as it's great that everyone's in their own corner doing their own thing, actually, when when people work together, like we make amazing stuff, and and also what will happen if people work together, there'll be less like conflicting software, like the amount of times you exactly how many times you install something, and then it's like oh you you that doesn't work if you've got that installed, so therefore you need to like uninstall and again, it's kind of that the whole philosophy of just how about we just have one platform that allows people to like work together, so yeah, it's it's very much like I said, it's very much uh an ecosystem and a like an operating system as opposed to just uh just another EFB to like add to your collection of adults basically exactly, absolutely, although like that 19th iteration of like the same scenery.
SPEAKER_00I'm not gonna say no names girl, you know.
SPEAKER_04Oh my gosh, yeah, back off of the off of that, man. I remember in Houston seeing PMDG and Navigraph having them conversations, you know. So like that's that's a big deal, man. Keeping keeping everybody kind of joint efforts, I think. Yep, it's it's only benefits us as the consumer in the long run.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and I think if you ask any developer like what is your main goal, and it is to benefit the consumer. So therefore, why why don't why don't we work them all together? And I think that's that's you know, is it's very much about pulling people together as it is actually creating EFP.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, absolutely. Because at the end of the day, don't make no money if nobody's buying it. So well, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Just call it for what it is. But speak speaking of money and and the ends there, Charlie, you brought up a good point. So it's finally no well, the check, the checks in the mail, but you should have cashed it like two weeks ago. So waiting on ADP, I got it, I got it. Yeah, yeah, yes, you waiting for an ADP login. But but just to be just to make sure I could do a little
Pricing Tiers And Paid Apps
SPEAKER_00research. So the base tier, if I'm if I'm understanding correctly, Katie is going to be free, and then of course you can transition to that into a a higher tier, higher paid tier.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there's you know, and and that will always be the case as well. I think it's really important that regardless of of your financial background, you can use this. And I think it's really important for the success of this project that that we have a user base. And I think if you put everything behind the paywall, like from day one, everyone's just gonna be like, no, thank you. Like it's very much kind of yeah, just you know, and and that's I mean, hey, if I start put if I start charging people to to read the news, like I think we've got a problem, you know, like I said, or or if they're like using like GSX and having to pay to use it remotely, like that's I mean, that's essentially me profiteering off of like someone else's creativity because that is actually Umberto software, not not mine. So there's so yes, the base tier will be free. Um, we haven't detailed out exactly what that looks like, but essentially the base tier is free, and then you can yeah, you can bring it up to a premium, which will give you basically a better user experience. And again, we'll kind of detail that out in in in more detail. And then the only other thing is the fact that some apps may be paid for. So for example, if there's an app that requires, so for example, yeah, I don't know, if there's an app that requires a subscription to uh to the actual underlying like assets, for example, like if it's a mapping thing or or whatever, then maybe that one will have to have some sort of charge because uh you know, obviously we can't just absorb the price of everybody exactly, you know. So it's kind of like so so it's it's it's only gonna be charged. Let's certain apps will only be charged if they have to be. It's not just gonna be, oh well, we think it's uh we're gonna charge this because we want to, it's very much gonna be kind of kind of minimal, minimal pricing, basically. Like this is this is something I just wanted to do because it's because it's good fun to make. Like, I'm not no as an airline pilot, like it's probably no secret, like you know, we earn good money, so I'm not I'm not here trying to make a living, which is actually really freeing for me as a developer because it means that I don't I don't need to go, oh, I need to make this profitable. Actually, I just I just want to make something cool.
SPEAKER_00Like that's why I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_05Do you know what I mean? It's and and that that's all that's that's all I've kind of wanted to share with this whole thing.
SPEAKER_00So absolutely, absolutely. All good point. Uh, question from any which way but there, man. I love that name. Oh my gosh, love that name. Um, would they would a VA integration be possible like they do for that Vamas and um is that what it is? Okay, I totally butchered that from Flight Mods UK.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so any any developer can make an app. So if if there's a virtual airline out there that wants to have their own like VA's app in the app store, then they can absolutely do that. So yeah, it would just depend on the the the VA making the app, really. So one what so with the app store, it'll essentially work where developers can make an app, they submit it to us, we'll just review the code and make sure there's nothing nefarious on that or anything, you know, it's of good quality, obviously, and then it'll go into our app store provided you know passes our checks and stuff. And one of the checks is is going to be like vibe coding and stuff, because uh whilst we don't mind we don't mind AI being used to help development, we're quite against kind of just sheer vibe coded applications purely from a security standpoint, really. Rarely are vibe coded applications made with security in mind, and I think that's also really important to us. We're we're exposing things over your local local network and things like that. And so it's it's very important that we make sure that everybody is is, you know, that the application is safe, basically.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So just my my understanding as far as the the application, the app ecosystem. So it's more of kind of like a modular ecosystem to where it kind of has its own little app store, if I'm understanding that correctly.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yeah, correct. So uh so the the app store, I think if they're like do you guys have an Apple iPhone or Android or whatever? Yeah, so very much the same as like the Apple App Store, where you know you can install the apps, you can delete them, the ones you don't need. So you can so when when you saw the EFB or you've seen screenshots, in fact, every screenshot you've seen, you've probably seen the apps like in a different order, they're all over the place and stuff, and that's just because you can just move them around, or you add them, delete them, like it's entirely up to you. So very much like it's yours. It's not I'm not giving you the EFB. In fact, the first time you download it, you're gonna have two apps on there, and people will log in and go, What on earth is this? Because you just have the app store and you have your settings app and that's it. Because then it's for you to go into the app store and start downloading your apps and the ones that you want.
SPEAKER_00Oh, too cool. So you can build it, make it your own, to your point from earlier. Oh, awesome.
SPEAKER_05And the other thing as well, with like we've we we we want this to be like to be as simple as possible for you as well. So, like when you load up EFPX, it like automatically updates itself, it automatically updates any apps that you've installed and stuff. So there's no you don't need to be like, oh, is that up to date and stuff like that? It just does it for you.
SPEAKER_00So too cool, too cool. Question from Dougle McTavish Does the scratch pad data get saved at all?
SPEAKER_05Uh only if you want to. So again, it's very much you know, and very much your uh your choice, basically. So no too cool.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Let's see. Another question. Awesome. Love the question, guys. Love the questions, guys. If my there we go, my mouse wasn't mousing. Is Katie going to be present at the F Sim UK event in Bristol?
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. It's for me, it's it's not too far away, it's a couple hours' drive, so I'll definitely be there. Yeah, really excited for that event. I think it's one of those ones where when I first saw it, I was like, Oh, is anyone gonna get behind this? But it seems like everyone's like, Yeah, let's do it. Any excuse to get together with the community. So um, yes, but it's long overdue that we haven't had a a flight sim event in the UK for many years. Before COVID, I think the last one was. So it's uh nice to have something a bit closer to home. Obviously, we have FS weekend, FS weekend, yeah. Yeah, so but that's obviously in in the Netherlands, which I went to in March, and that was an eight-hour drive. So it's gonna be nice to just have a couple of hours drive and just like you know, absolutely and get there. So yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_04No jet lag there.
unknownNope.
SPEAKER_05No jet lag. Well, well, it depends how long you spend in the bar, really, doesn't it? Well, that's true.
SPEAKER_04Flamingoes or was it weren't flamingos? What was the name of that place up there? Oh, Zamboni Zambones, all the flamingos.
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh. Your thing is in Vegas, Charlie.
SPEAKER_00You're in Vegas already. Yeah, we didn't we didn't find out until they were like, hey, like the last night. Yeah, I was like, hey guys, we're worried about it.
SPEAKER_05I was there on the Thursday and I I messaged Moose and I said, I'm hearing stories that there's somewhere that's got karaoke. And he was like, I've not I've not heard about this, but I'll keep my edge to the ground. I was like, okay, I will too. And then literally we found out where it was, it was in Zamboni's, and um and we um and but I was like, I'm no, I'm not gonna do any karaoke, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it. By the end of the night, you couldn't get me down. I was like singing all the songs. Like we did like a three of us got up and did like I want it that way by the backstreet boys, like oh gosh, that's hilarious. But no, it was it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm yeah, you know what kind of worked out, Charlie, because man, it brought some backstreet boys. Man, I've been I've been your background background singer, you know. Yeah, but not too cool. Oh, a question for from Carl Anthony. When on the where I'm assuming square, but when on the map or map overview, what's the refresh rate compared to Valanta? I'm sure I've mentioned that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, I think I think he means that in terms of the like the the the tracking, I think. Um I've not I've not too honest checked the refresh rate of between Valanta and E FPX. All I do know is like ours is extremely responsive. Um I don't know if I could probably bring it up, maybe I can is if I'm just gonna go back to one that I did not Geneva, let's do Marseille, because it's pretty because I did this as a stream I did two days ago or so. But like this is our track. And oh wow, and as you like, it's pretty yeah, it's pretty and pretty snappy, yeah. So like I said, it's not I don't know what is like versus anything, but I know all I know is it's nice and responsive and it it seems to work. So it's all I know is about is it's very satisfying to go and do a flight and then look back at it. So you're trying like I said, we're not we're not here to compete with the likes of Valanta. We're actually here to to like again, if if Valanta wanted to integrate with with the FBX and have a Valanta app, then I would be absolutely like all over it, especially the Alvatex guys at Hexbone, and I'm like, can I just like you know, let's have an Alvatex app in there too. Like, I'm not saying you don't you don't need to you know you don't need to only you know only use our tracking app. If you want to use that like Alvatex or Valanta, then go ahead. But we'd love to have an app so you don't have to have one or the other, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Totally, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's it's very much like that kind of philosophy. So yeah, it's it's like I said, it's about it's about bringing developers together rather than trying to make a competing product.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. Other comment from I guess so yeah, man, Zan Belly's is like oh we know, bro.
SPEAKER_04We were there.
SPEAKER_05I was working every day, obviously, wasn't I? I had to be there for like doors open. And actually, if anyone did get into expo like at doors open on like a Saturday or Sunday, they would have seen me at like 858, like rocking up, like with the coffee in hand, like blasting past the cue to get through security and then downstairs, and then that was kind of like Sunday.
SPEAKER_04You were on a mission to get get to the expo hall. Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, yeah. I'm telling you, but then next year, next year I'm coming with a plan. And I think shout out to a a good friend of ours. Uh I'm I'm gonna put him on spot. XP seventy two. It was like, yeah, I just you know, I get like a list and you know, a punch list and to be able to hit all my spots or whatnot. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, why didn't I think of it? You know, like why didn't we think of that? Because if you know, if you guys have not gone to FS Expo, next year of course will be in Vegas. Definitely make plans. Do not miss it. It's it's so many memories. Like I'm I'm still yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'm kind of I'm kind of thinking with that because with uh Vegas, I'm I'm probably gonna make more than just the weekend of it because I know that if I'm at the show like over the weekend, I'm basically gonna leave. Like, I mean, when I left uh St. Paul, I was like, I haven't seen I haven't seen much of this city. I've I've seen I've seen the walk between the Intercontinental and the Expo Hall. I've seen Zambonis. And that's probably about it. I just didn't have time. I was so busy doing other stuff. So I think making more of like a week of it would probably be probably might be my plan like this coming year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that's that's what I'm that's what I'm thinking, thinking as well. And I know I know Mike's like super close there, he's in California, so yeah, it's definitely definitely gonna be worth you know making the trip over. You know, we'll we'll pull old Charlie out of Georgia and get him over.
SPEAKER_04Go ahead and have a lawyer on a retainer, bro. Oh my goodness, man. Especially Ralph shows up. Raf shows up. We're gonna be in a bind.
SPEAKER_00All good shenanigans, all good shenanigans for sure, for sure.
Expo Stories And Early Access Signup
SPEAKER_00As far as as far as any closing thoughts for the audience, Katie, is there is there anything anything you want the uh you'd like for the audience to know?
SPEAKER_05I think the the key thing is I think most people are like, well, how do I how do I get it? That was always the closing question when we when we when we're expo. Like they're like, okay, well, that's great. How'd I get it? And um the answer to that is in so it's releasing in Q4. Obviously, that is a three-month window, so at some point in Q4, it'll come and there we go. So the best thing to do is go to our website and you can put your email address in, and then gets you on the mailing list, and that gets you on the early access list. And that's not just early access for release, that's like early access for for any other like updates that we do in the future. Like you will be the first to know, and like essentially it's like a little like just a little thank you for backing the project from the start. Because I think like as it grows, it would never have happened if it wasn't for the early adopters. So, yeah, that's that's very much like what I would like to say is go to the website, put your email address in, and also follow along on our Instagram because that is also where we post things. And I'm I'm quite bad for like posting cool features on Instagram because I'm getting excited, and then I go, Oh, that's cool, people might live out, and then I post on my story, and then I get told off by by our marketing guy being like, Stop posting stuff that's you know, that's commercially sensitive. And so I'm like, I got excited, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, no worries again. It was an absolute pleasure having you on. You know, one thing is you know, I'm I'm just admire your dedicated uh dedication to your craft and to the industry, you know.
SPEAKER_04On top of your real job.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. On top of your real job.
SPEAKER_05Forgot about that. I definitely have to fly planes later this week.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Exactly. You know, and I mean, you know, I think, you know, with the community having, you know, if we can just have more developers like you, I I can see the industry in a yeah in a in a good place for sure.
SPEAKER_05I hope it does inspire other developers, also people who aren't developers too. Like I I am self-taught. I I never I never went to like school about it. I did maths and stuff at school. So like if you're interested in stuff, just give it a go. Like you'll make mistakes. I mean, I look back at some of the earlier stuff I did. In fact, I'm a little I'm I'm not embarrassed by the Phoenix at all. I am still really proud of it, but I would have done it very differently now, and knowing what I now know. And and so, like, it's it's kind of like you know, it's the same. I'm sure like if you I don't know, you do something else in a hobby that you have, like you know, you look back on something you did a few years ago and go, oh, I wouldn't have done it that way now. And for us, you know, I would say that anyone who is an aspiring developer, just just give it a go and see what happens. And you never know, it might be something you'd you're naturally talented at.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely, for sure, for sure. Great thoughts, Katie. What about you, Charlie? Any was fading in your animals any in closing, closing thoughts for the audience.
SPEAKER_04For the audience, that's about it. It's hard to follow up, Miss Katie down there. I'm just gonna sit here and be quiet.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Awesome, guys. Well, again, to you guys out there in the audience, thank you for hanging out with us. Definitely be sure to follow Katie and all of her socials we have listed in the description below. Definitely check out her website as well. Get on that mailing list. I've done the same, and you know, be sure to like and subscribe and all the things that I guess we're supposed to say for the algorithm so it can algorithm.
SPEAKER_05Turn your relapse on and stuff. That's what they do, right? Is that there you go.
SPEAKER_00Hit the bell or something.
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SPEAKER_05One thing I would say, can I just add if if anyone is here just because I posted out and you don't subscribe this channel, like please do subscribe this channel. Don't don't like kind of come to this stream and only watch because I'm here. Like, please just subscribe because these guys do amazing podcasts. And I was catching up on your your FSXO wash up, and that was like fantastic. So, yeah, guys, make sure you do. And I know we're kind of making a joke about it, but do press the button. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00No, we are extremely humbled and graced by your presence. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's gonna be all for us this evening. We'll also post this on uh in podcast format as well to all of your various podcast outlets for for that morning commute or to and from work. And yeah, so if you guys have any comments, make sure you guys leave them in below and all that fun stuff. But ladies and gentlemen, keep the blue side up and we'll see ya.