Time of Day wrong if default flight not in your actual time zone

[tripecac 1]

I'm in New Zealand, and often fly FSX here too. However, i have my default flight saved as an aiport near Seattle.

 

For some reason, the fact that the default flight and my physical location are in different time zones confuses FSX.

 

For example, I start FSX at 9:19am, and go to Free Flight. The default flight is near Seattle, and the Current Time and Season says 8/12/2012 9:19am, which is the current time in NZ, not the current time in Seattle. When I load the flight and then go to World / Time and Season..., I see that the local time is 9:19am, which is wrong; the actual local time in Seattle right now is 2:19pm.

 

If end the flight and then select Auckland Intl as my current location, I see that it is dark, and FSX says that local time is 03:19:32, GMT is 16:19:32, and the date is 8/13/2012. In other words, FSX thinks the current time in New Zealand is actually 18 hours in the future.

 

So, it's as if FSX assumes that your computer's time is the current time at the default flight's location, not your actual location. It doesn't seem to be "aware" of your computer's actual time zone.

 

The workaround is to change the default flight to an airport in your own time zone. So, if I start at Auckland Intl, and then save that as the default flight, the next time I open FSX, the time of day issues are gone; all time of day calcuations seem correct at that point.

 

This is a relatively painless workaround, but what would be ideal is to get FSX to become aware of our computer's actual time zone, so that it can base time of day calculations off of that instead of off of the default flight.

 

Of course, maybe these "errors" are intentional. Let's say you live in Seattle, but want to fliy a "grand tour" around Africa, where each day you fly to a new airport, and save your current position as the default flight, so that tomorrow you can continue where you left off. If you fly at a time when it's actually dark in Africa, it will be a real pain to have to keep changing the Time of Day each time you load FSX (in order to get daytime scenery). So maybe FSX is trying to be "helpful" by assuming you always want to fly your default flight at the time of day where you are now, not at the actual time of day at the default flight's location. (Of course, if you happen to fly at night, the "helpful" feature will be annoying).

 

Anyway, has anyone else investigated this issue? Is there a cleaner workaround than setting the default flight to the same time zone as your computer?

 

Thanks!

[ZachLW 36]

Anyway, has anyone else investigated this issue? Is there a cleaner workaround than setting the default flight to the same time zone as your computer?

 

Thanks!

 

Sure: http://www.3dsoftworks.net/products/fsrealtime/history.asp

 

Personally I just set the time and use the registered FSUIPC's sync feature.

[Chief Cargo 0]

Personally I just set the time and use the registered FSUIPC's sync feature.

 

This is exactly what I do, works for me.

 

Also there is a checkbox under settings>general (right side of the screen) and it includes a setting called "Use system time for Free Flight".

 

Might want to check that out.

[tripecac 1]

I downloaded FSUIPC but after reading the docs suspect that time sync feature is for the registered version only; is that the case?

[ZachLW 36]

I downloaded FSUIPC but after reading the docs suspect that time sync feature is for the registered version only; is that the case?

Sure: http://www.3dsoftwor...ime/history.asp

 

Personally I just set the time and use the registered FSUIPC's sync feature.

Yes sir

[Swofford 155]

FSUIPC is one of the best investments you can make into FS. Highly recommend you pick it up can cure many of Flight Sim ailments.

[Johan_Dees 82]

Note that when using such a tool, you can mess up your 1 or minute standard turns if it updated the time doing one.

Thats the reason FS uses its own timer, so in a turn you can pause, freeze the time, go to the toilet, get back and continue turning while your cockpit clock still is ok.

Same for a timed decend.

[BIGSKY 91]

I get constant texture reloads with that FSUIPC sync time tweek enabled.

[Gregg_Seipp 419]

Personally I just set the time and use the registered FSUIPC's sync feature.

 

This is why I'm glad I'm on AVSIM. I didn't even know FSUIPC had that feature. Thanks!