Fix Time Zones

[aviator_boy]

How can I fix the time zones.

It has Greece as +1GMT when it is +2
It has Moscow as +2 when it is +3

etc etc

Any Ideas?

Thanks

[ozzy72]

What do you mean? As in when you login it picks up the correct local time?

[Anxyous]

Daylight Savings might be it, somehow...

[aviator_boy]

What do you mean? As in when you login it picks up the correct local time?

When I fly from UK to Russia for example, the time in Russia is not 3 Hours ahead of the Uk time like it should be. It is 2 hours.

Daylight saving is not on as it is now not the summer.

[Nav]

aviator_boy, I suspect that the people who developed FS2004 did the best they could, but had to simplify the timezones by using lines of longitude. I expect that you know how complicated the actual zones are, but if not this shows them:-

http://www.worldtimezone.com/

I don't know which part of Russia you were flying to but if it was Moscow, for example, looking at that map, the game developers probably had to include western Russia in the same zone as Finland and Turkey.

There's a thread further up ('Clock question') giving a link to a download that you can get that gets the zones completely right. I'll give you fair warning though - I had a look at it and it's about 10MB., vastly complicated, and a bit intrusive. Furthermore, it's organised so that unless you register it and pay for it it cuts out after about half an hour.

So my recommendation is probably 'grin and bear it.'

One tip if you need to take timezones into account for flight planning (to make sure you arrive in daylight, for instance). My method is to set up and plan the flight, take a note of the trip duration, and save it.

Then I use 'Alt-World-Airport' to skip ahead to my destination; and advance the time by the trip duration. This gives me my 'Estimated Time of Arrival' and I can check the light conditions (and also call up 'real weather' and the ATIS and check the likely weather on arrival etc.).

Then I reload my saved flight and I'm ready to go.

Hope it helps.

[Stewy44]

I also use 'flying time' from various airline websites to work out if I'm landing 'on schedule' at my destination.  The clock isn't always accurate.

I fly mostly Australian domestic flights, and yes, time zones get messed up all the time.

Thanks for the heads up, Nav - 'grin and bear it' is good advice for me too!

Cheers
Stew

[Staiduk]

There's a thread further up ('Clock question') giving a link to a download that you can get that gets the zones completely right. I'll give you fair warning though - I had a look at it and it's about 10MB., vastly complicated, and a bit intrusive. Furthermore, it's organised so that unless you register it and pay for it it cuts out after about half an hour.

Actually Nav, I've been playing with RealTime for a bit, and it seems you don't have to actually run the thing regularly.

I fly FSCargo in the Atlin/Juneau region, and there's a time zone that passes right down the Alexander Archipelago which plays merry he!! with scoring. Real Time fixes the time zones, but it does so on startup - just so long as the program is started when FS2004 is started; it loads the new time zones - you can then shut RT down. Also, it seems FS9 keeps the new time zones during subsequent plays, though I'm not sure about the specifics.

I'd be curious to see if this works worldwide - it works for me in Alaska, anyway.

[Nav]

Interesting, Staiduk, thanks for the info., in that case I might give it a try.

I know what you mean about Alaska - I still indulge my preference for taking short-range types round the world. With anything that has a range of less than 2,000 miles you have to go round the Pacific, not across it. So I tend to see quite a lot of places like Eareckson, Adak, King Salmon, Anchorage, Homer, and Juneau!

Actually, that area seems to prove the point about longitude. Last time I was up that way I kept an eye on the date and it changed as I crossed 180 degrees Longitude. Whereas, as you'll know, the actual Dateline 'zigzags' between Russia and the USA at that point.

[Staiduk]

Just as extra info - yup, after installing Real Time it adds a 'fixed time zones' scenery file into the library.  So you can pretty much delete it once you've got the new zones.

Heh heh - Hey, Nav - you remember our race from loooong ago; from London to Cairo? IIRC, you beat me by rather a large margin - I was too busy zooming around the mountains having fun. Well, at the end of that race I wound up having to pick my way down by guess and golly because I was so late - and went from bright daylight to BLACK!! right over Alexandria. Lol - fun race; this topic just made me remember it.

[Nav]

Cheers, Staiduk, I'll probably try that. Just as 'insurance,' though, which folder/file is the new entry placed in? I only ask because I get nervous about installing things without knowing where to find them if I ever choose to delete?

Yeah, remember that race (in the DH Comet) very well - good fun, 'dead reckoning' at 200-plus knots! As far as I recall, though, you won in terms of flying time by an hour or so. Only thing was, I kept the power down a bit and did the trip non-stop, you landed to refuel. If I'd thought to suggest an allowance for 'time on ground' I might have been the winner!