Scheduled Departure Times

[Cody Gustafson GLE140]

So I am new here and couldnt find this anywhere in the Pilots Manual or here on the forums.  I have used VAFS with a different VA but they didnt have schedule departure times.  So with that being said, is the schedule departure time for every flight for GLE, PW, and PN for Real World Time or FS time?  I am currently assuming real world.

Thanks
Cody GLE140

[Greg Mumbach GLE141]

Hi Cody, and welcome!

There used to be some posts in the forums that discussed it, but I couldn't find them either, so maybe some housecleaning has been done and old topics removed.

To the best of my knowledge, all times shown in the GLI (GLE, PW, PN, GLC, etc) schedules are Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time). It doesn't matter what time it is where you are, or what time your PC has. When I go to set up a flight (FSX), I go to the Current Time and Season (#4) section of Free Flight. I leave the date alone, so it represents the actual date I am flying, and I set the GMT time approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. This gives me enough time to finish my preflight and start the engines on time. I vary that 15 minutes depending on which plane I'm flying, since some take longer to set up than others do.

Hope that helps. And I hope I'm right, too! I think I flew for months before I found out the schedule times were Zulu time, and where I live, that meant a difference of 4 (EDT) or 5 (EST) hours.

Greg

[Tim Kisil GLE192]

Yes, the flight times are at GMT. What I do is set my FS time to match the departure airport's time after adjusting it from the GMT.

For example, I'm in Memphis (KMEM) right now which I know is 5 hours behind GMT in the summer so I minus 5 hours off the flight's departure time and set my FS time to that. I use Wikipedia to get the time offset for the departure cities.

[Cody Gustafson GLE140]

ah ha thanks guys!  I work for the airlines so they pound Zulu times in our heads so thats easy enough for me to handle.

[Adam Hehrer GLE 155]

I think you're making it too difficult. If the flight departure is 0930, just change the simulator time to 0930. If you're leaving Cleveland, 0930 is 0930, even if your flight simulator is in Beijing.

[Greg Mumbach GLE141]

Yes, Adam, that is correct as long as it's the GMT time you set. Nothing difficult about it, and no need to do any math. But if you set the flight sim local time to the scheduled time, it will be incorrect, unless you are departing from Greenwich.

For example, your last flight was #1022 on 09/02. The GLE schedule shows that flight departing at 13:39Z and arriving at 14:10Z.

Your flight log shows that the block off time was 13:44 FS Time, 18:44 Zulu - which is 5 hours too late, since KMKE is UTC-5. So it would appear that you set the FS local time to Zulu time. This means you departed at 1:39PM instead of 8:39AM.

I hope I'm correct in this - I'd hate to be going through all this only to be told I'm full of it (MYOB Brian & Kevin!). But this is how I understand it, and like I said, it took me months to get it straight.

[Adam Hehrer GLE 155]

Yea, set it to local. VAFS will record the flight in your time not simulator time. Thats just to show the flight length. Don't worry about that being off.

Either way, probably doesn't matter. Just as long as the durations are right, it'll be ok for VAFS. Which is what is important.

[Adam Hehrer GLE 155]

I see what your saying. Maybe it's supposed to be Z time. Easy to set that in FSX. I've done nearly 100 flights the wrong way I think.

[Greg Mumbach GLE141]

Either way, probably doesn't matter. Just as long as the durations are right, it'll be ok for VAFS. Which is what is important.

One might argue that following the schedule the way it is set is also important. Passengers (yes, I know they are virtual) don't like being 5 hours late.

But yes, in the long run, it may not matter. I know I did it wrong for months, and I still got credit for all those flights. I still see screenshots posted of "nighttime" flights that were flown at night only because the time wasn't set correctly.

I'm kind of a detail-oriented guy, and I like to set my sim flying as close to real conditions as possible within the limitations of my system, software and budget. So for me, it's important that I set my flight sim time such that I am departing according to the schedule.

[Adam Hehrer GLE 155]

Now that I look at it closer, its definitely Zulu time.  That makes more sense too... I kept wondering why our flight routes all seemed to start after noon.  This puts them back in the morning, with the route continuing to the early night.

I dont enjoy the night flights as much.... This discovery will keep a lot more flights in daylight.  Sweet.

[Greg Mumbach GLE141]

LOL - that's exactly what led me to look into it further way back when. I couldn't understand why we had so many flights that went pretty late into the evening, but none in the earlier morning, until I discovered the Zulu time in the schedule. The only difference was I liked the evening and night flights.

I'm glad you're pleased with the discovery!

[Brian Flatman GLE190]

I also was one that thought the times were local. I wondered for a few months on why we had so many night flights. Boy them virtual pax's can get moody when they are late.

[Kevin Hardy GLE144]

Boy them virtual pax's can get moody when they are late.

They don't like it ? Show 'em the door.  At fl290......