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jerryuscg

FS2004 Time issue discovered

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This morning on a flight from Fairbanks, Alaska to Juneau, Alaska I discoved a certain "element" of the time keeping, that was incorrect. Just about everyone knows that GMT (Greenwitch Mean Time) starts in Greenwitch, England and the time zones spread out in both directions, East and West in zones of 15 degrees of longitude each:e.g. 15*, 30*, 45* etc. It is the same Local Time in each one of these zones. What some might not know is that the same local time does not extend , say from, 15* W to 30* W. The longitude (for example) of 30*W is the CENTER of a time zone and NOT its eastern or western boundery. The timezone extends 7 1/2 degrees to the EAST and 7 1/2 degrees to the WEST of the(any) standard time meridian, in this case 30* WEST. In this case of the 30* time meridian,it is the +2 timezone the +2 Time zone extends from 22.5* W to 37.5* W., with the Standard Time Meriden of 30* right in the middle of the two boundries. It is called +2 timezone because you have to ADD 2 hours to get GMT. ( It is always LATER to the EAST and EAILIER to the WEST. (From Chicago to New York, going east it is Later. Going from Chicago to San Francisco, going west is it earlier. Back to my flight this morning. According to FS2004:I departed Fairbanks at 06:21AM Local time (1521 GMT) I was in +9 time zone which ment GMT was 9 hours later than my local time.This is where part of the error comes in. In real life, I would have been in +10 time zone( and local time would have been 0521 and NOT 0621) because my position of 147*W is in +10 timezone, NOT +9 timezone because 147* longitude is between 142*30' W and 157* 30' W, which is really +10 timezone . FS2004 said I was in +9 Timezone because it put my position of 147*W long between long 135*W and 150*W. I would be flying Southeast from longitude 147* WEST to just EAST of long 135W. I have the "pocketwatch" from the FS2004 default aircraft, Curtiss Jenn that keeps LOCAL time on my Cessina Citation X panel. The boundry between timezone +9W and timezone +10W is long, 142*30'W. IN REAL LIFE, WHEN I PASSED FROM +10w TIMEZONE TO +9 TIMEZONE (at long 142*30'W), MY LOCAL TIME ON THE WATCH SHOULD HAVE CHANGED FROM 0810 TO 0910, BUT IT DIDN'T.It change to the one hour LATER, 0910, only when I crossed over the Standard Time Meriden of 135*W. In real life it would have changed at 142*30' WEST, as I was headed east.The point to all of this, with FS2004 and no adjustment programs, the local time will change at the STANDARD TIME MERIDIAN,example 15*, 30*, 45*, 60* etc and not the boundry of two differant time zones like in real life. I was a Navigator assist for 15 years in the US Navy and US Coast Guard and the "subject " of TIME was a VERY, VERY BIG part of my job. jerrycwo4I have reread this about 6 times and I think all of my info is correct

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Guest Tom Goodrick

Sir, you are incorrect and FS is correct. FS is much more sophisticated than you think. Rather than simply going by the longitude, FS takes into account Daylight Savings time which accounts for the initial time difference with GMT (which does not change with Daylight Savings Time). Also, at 141 W longitude, your flight to Juneau crossed the border into Canada's Yukon Province which is on Pacific Time (not known if on Daylight Savings Time which mostly applies to US areas). Then as your flight crossed back into Alaska near Juneau, it re-entered Alska time which extends from 130 Lon to 170 Lon.Local politics trumps geography every time. In the US you will find many such political anomolies such as Arizona which never goes on Daylight time. Then there is the boundary between Eastern Time and Central Time that wanders all over. FS tracks these things very well.I get a charge out of the fact you use the pocket watch in your Citation X. That's cool! I prefer to use the TIMER gauge which is digital and can show either local or Zulu time at the push of a button as well as showing elapsed time whenever needed. I use that showing only Zulu time on all international jet flights.

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>Local politics trumps geography every time. In the US you will>find many such political anomolies such as Arizona which never>goes on Daylight time. Then there is the beautiful state of Indiana where some counties use DST and some don't.


The best gift you can give your children is your time.

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You might be right. I'm hoping that FS2004 does not change time zones on the standard time meridians (its 7 1/2 degreess on either side of the styandard time meridan). I'm looking for a website that I can call up a city/airport and get its LOCAL time and GMT or timezone desinnation. I need this for planning my LOCAL time of ETC at my destination. Also, where can I get that TIMER GAUGE you refer to? Thanks jerrycwo4PS This morning on a flight from Prince Rupert Is, Canada to Seattle, my local time advanced one hour as soon as I hit the U.S. Terretorail waters.

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>PS This morning on a flight from Prince Rupert Is, Canada to>Seattle, my local time advanced one hour as soon as I hit the>U.S. Terretorail waters.That sounds like the Canucks don't observe DST as we do here in the PNW.Take a look at this website - http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html


The best gift you can give your children is your time.

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Jerry,Try FS Real Time. You can get it here...it's donationware, so it will nag you if you insist on using it for free, but it's well worth a five or ten dollar donation.http://www.3dsoftworks.net/products/fsrealtime/default.asp


Best Regards,

Kurt "Yoda" Kalbfleisch

Pinner, Middx, UK

Beta tester for PMDG J41, NGX, and GFO, Flight1 Super King Air B200, Flight1 Cessna Citation Mustang, Flight1 Cessna 182, Flight1 Cessna 177B, Aeroworx B200

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I was looking at their website: did they ever resolve the problem with World Time Zones not working correctly?

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N60JBravo... Thanks a BILLION BILLION !!!!! Thats exactly what I was looking for !! This morning on a flight from (KSEA) Seattle to (KHLN) Helena I could have used this program before starting FS Passeners to get the follow info: Local Time in KSEA 1410, Local time in (KHLN) 1510 (and each's time zones) and GMT 2110. All of the info I need to figgure my KHLN ETA in both local time and GMT. I just asked this morning where a site like this was. Thanks jerrycwo4

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Guest magnum_force

Great point.!!!

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In Pierre, S.D. now, May 24th :There is an error in BOTH of the above programs. They both gave the zone discriptions for Central Daylight Savings Time as a -5. Time zones to the WEST of Greenwitch are PLUS (+) time zones indicating that one must ADD the + time zone indicator to obtain GREENWITCH MEAN Time, not the other way around. The Time Zone discription should have been a +5, not a -5. jerrycwo4

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Guest RonB49

As Lee says, the prorgrams are correct. For example, if it is 1700 UCT, then it is noon 1200 in SD. 17 -5 = 12 R-

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>Sir, you are incorrect and FS is correct. FS is much more>sophisticated than you think. >I get a charge out of the fact you use the pocket watch in>your Citation X. That's cool! I prefer to use the TIMER gauge>which is digital and can show either local or Zulu time at the>push of a button as well as showing elapsed time whenever>needed. I use that showing only Zulu time on all international>jet flights.It's not so clever, unfortunately. Here are some time zone differences with respect to Zulu time:Anchorage, AK: FS9 -9h; Real World -9h FS9 correctAdak, AK: FS9 -11h; Real World -10h FS9 wrongLisbon, Portugal: is on Zulu time and FS9 is correctBucharest, Romania: FS9 -1h; Real World -2h so FS9 is wrongIt is impossible for FS9 to present accurate time differences between Zulu and local times. This is because daylight saving time changes are not coordinated across the world. The dates on which DSTs are implemented varies in different countries, regions, and even from year to year. Others have drawn attention to this. I've tried FS Real Time but it cannot cope with DST variations either. My solution is to do what real world aviators do. I keep my watch on Zulu time and forget about local times.


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John

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There is an option in the Payware version of FSUIPC to keep FS time sync'ed with "real time". Doesn't this do basically the same thing as FSRealTime?I bought FSRT a couple of weeks ago and love it, but that was before I realized this option was in FSUIPC.

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Guest RonB49

Hi Chuck,I've never used that option in FSUIPC but I seem to recall that it causes FS to reload traffic each time that the clock syncs up. I've heard it can happen quite often and make FS almost unusable. R-

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