help with UTC time

[NM5K 1]

This is a bug in FSX by default. Load the default Cessna and you'll see the same issue. It does this around daylight savings time changes for some reason. You can avoid this by always just setting Zulu time and ignoring local.

 

Evidently FSX has preset daylight and standard times and does not follow Windows time

as far as standard or daylight time.

Which seems a bit silly being as most tend to start the sim in real time using Windows time.

Fortunately, it's over for this spring. April 6 was the day that FSX finally goes to DST, so the

sim clocks are straight again.. Or at least until the fall..  Have to go through this twice a year

on FSX..

Being a ham, I'm used to using GMT/UTC/Zulu, as we use it for the same reasons the aviation

world does.

Being in the central time zone, "US", it's easy for me to keep track of. We are 6 hours behind

GMT. But in the summer with daylight savings time, we are 5 hours behind.

You can see it in the sim if you set the day for April 5. It will be six hours difference here. Run

up to April 6, and it goes to five as it should be.  Or from five to four hours difference on the

east coast.

[G-CIVA 62]

In addition to utilising something like FS Real Time (really handy with little or no impact well worth the price) it's also handy to set your 'flying PC' or 'flight simming' PC & any peripheral networked PCs or laptops to UTC/GMT without the DST option ticked via the Windows Clock.

 

Despite what any naysayers might have you believe it will not affect things adversely one jot & I have been doing this happily for years (now living in a considerable UTC offset for over 4 years).

 

FWIW mariners, the military & many other fields of transport, science & commerce also use UTC/GMT.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

Being a ham, I'm used to using GMT/UTC/Zulu, as we use it for the same reasons the aviation
world does.

 

Nice! My grandfather used to be pretty heavily into that - was a charter member of the NCDXA (top of the list - W4WWG).

 

When he moved into assisted living, he gave me all of his books on propagation and all of the math in telecommunications. Crazy how much goes into that.

[kevinh 409]

In addition to utilising something like FS Real Time (really handy with little or no impact well worth the price) it's also handy to set your 'flying PC' or 'flight simming' PC & any peripheral networked PCs or laptops to UTC/GMT without the DST option ticked via the Windows Clock.

 

Despite what any naysayers might have you believe it will not affect things adversely one jot & I have been doing this happily for years (now living in a considerable UTC offset for over 4 years).

 

FWIW mariners, the military & many other fields of transport, science & commerce also use UTC/GMT.

For those of us who don't have the luxury of a PC dedicated to flight simming the solution is to position your default flight in your local time zone. This gets FSX UTC nicely in sync with your PC time when you load FSX. It doesn't solve all DST problems but then the OP's problem was not a DST error.

[PhantomTweak 3]

When I was in the Corps, Zulu time was the universal reference. It made life so much, especially when communicating or travelling between bases that might be in different time zones, or in zones that did or did not use DST.

For example, MCAS Yuma, AZ is in a state that doesn't use DST at all (YAAAY!! I HATE DST! Just my opinion, though), and frequently has doings with NAS El Centro, about 60 miles away in California, a state that does use DST and is in a different time zone to begin with. No real distance apart, relatively, but can you imagine the confusion that would result using local times? I shudder to think! It was so much easier to set all the clocks and watches (my watch, anyway) to Zulu Time, and leave them. A simple glance and you know exactly what's being referenced, rather than adding X for time zones, then subtracting Y for DST, or was adding Y for DST, etc etc...

Again, just my opinion!

Pat☺

[Driver170 42]

I done a flight from EGBB to EPGD in EUROPE. Birmingham local time was 1800 but UTC was 1600. As i headed across northern Europe to Poland i thought UTC would change +1 on my NGX but it didn't, it remained the same from the UK all the way to Poland. So when i arrived in Poland with a local time of 2030 and UTC was still1830. Now i thought UTC would change? like it goes up in 1 hour towards the east of europe and minus 1 hour towards the USA. 

 

Am i confused or not understanding it lol

 

cheers.

[skelsey 765]

I'm confused.

 

Firstly, unless Birmingham has moved in to a different time zone (maybe they have!), they remain on BST (UTC+1). So the local time at 1600Z would have been 1700BST.

 

According to Google, Gdansk is currently UTC +2. So landing at 1830Z the local time would have been 2030.

 

The time zones in FS are imperfect (especially around this time of year as daylight saving comes in to effect in various places on various different dates). To be honest, I don't ever really look at the FS local time: the PMDG 747 displays UTC on the chronometers at all times and I'd be surprised if the 737 did anything else.

 

What were you expecting to see change?

[netshadoe 144]

Now i thought UTC would change?

 

UTC (or GMT or ZULU) never changes.  It is the base time around the world that all clocks are set off of.  It doesn't move ahead.  It doesn't move back.  It doesn't change with daylight savings time.  It is the same all around the world, every day of the year.

 

Timezones are set off of UTC.  For example, here where I live, it is Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Daylight Time depending on the time of year.  When it's EST, our time is UTC-5...UTC time minus 5 hours.  When it's EDT, then it's UTC-4...UTC minus 4 hours.

 

So, right now, if it's noon here, then it's 16Z, or 16:00UTC because in this part of Canada, we are observing EDT at this time of year.

 

As I type this, it is now 19:22Z, or 19:22UTC.

 

Where you live, it is 19:22Z. 

 

In Japan, it's 19:22Z

 

In India, it is 19:22Z

 

On every airplane around the world, it is 19:22Z

 

ZULU/UTC/GMT is the same everywhere.

[Driver170 42]

Sorry other way about Birmingham was 1hr ahead of UTC but during my flight towards poland i was expecting the UTC to change, but i just got it wrong until reading your reply and devin and now it makes sense. UTC time is the same all around the earth what changes is local time. in poland from UTC when i landed it made me 2hrs ahead of UTC.

[netshadoe 144]

Exactly!! Now accurate local time in FSX is another issue!! Lol.

 

The bgl files that come with FSRealTime fix most of the issues, but not all.

 

Edit: fixed the mistakes autocorrect "fixed" for me...

[G-CIVA 62]

More rocket science I tell ya!

[vololiberista 205]

The only thing you need to to do in the sim is when it starts that the local time is correct. Although in my case the sim always calculates the difference between local and utc correctly it often doesn't get the local time correct. Last night for example the sim said local was 20:20 and UTC 18:30 which was not correct because the actual local time was 19:30. UTC therefore should have been 17:30. The sim doesn't always calculate the amount by which the local time is in advance or behind UTC.

Make sure before you start your lfight that the utc time is showing to be correct then it won't change for the whole flight.

[Driver170 42]

I use fs real time and that does a good job. I just got confused last night with utc and local time

[vololiberista 205]

I use fs real time and that does a good job. I just got confused last night with utc and local time

You just need to know that the calculated  UTC is correct. If not adjust your local time which will automatically reset your UTC. If you are flying on line it is essential that your clocks are displaying the correct UTC.

[Skiff 9]

 

 

UTC (or GMT or ZULU) never changes

 

Sure it does.

 

It changes at 1 second per second!  B)