Anyone uses FS Real Time?

[blueaircraft]

Along with Calclassic scenery. I just want to know if I should go along with installing. My date and time in game usually is backdated to around 1959 and 1960...

Andrew

[connieguy]

I used it years ago when I flew modern jets but you may find it doesn't work with 1960 and in any case it isn't necessary. The old timetables will often give GMT/UTC times and the time offset being used in the place concerned. These offsets could vary considerably, especially in the USA where daylight saving time was often a fairly local thing. I very much doubt whether the author of FS Real Time has incorporated all that information in his program, and you don't need it anyway. Set your flights by GMT/UTC and have a GMT clock in the cockpit - the Beaumont Bitzer sextant gauge always shows it and of course it does not change when you cross a time zone. You are then insulated from the vagaries of the FS9 time system without needing to do anything else.
Pierre Fasseaux has made a clock where you can adjust the hours and which also does not change when you cross a time zone. Put two of those in the cockpit, set one to GMT and leave it at that, and set the other to local time. If you know the local time changes during the flight alter it during the flight so that you know whether you are arriving on time. It gets a little more complicated with the relatively few half hour offsets, but it still isn't difficult. If the local time shown in the FS9 Time Zone box does not coincide with the information derived from your period timetable that is because it is wrong. However, it doesn't matter, because you are setting the time by GMT/UTC on the right hand side of the box and know from your timetable what the real offset was. Hope this is intelligible.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Most of the clocks on my panels give both local and GMT times in the tooltip.

And I agree, unless that program has a "backdating" feature, it won't be much use. As said above, DST in the classic era was a local option, and even the start/stop dates varied widely.

[blueaircraft]

Thanks folks! I have not had a problem with the time at all so I'll just stick to the default program.

Andrew

[johnhinson]

As FS2004 isn't very accurate with time zones and daylight saving outside the USA, the only thing FS Real Time will do is align those wrong times with your computer time. In Europe, Africa and Asia I often find the times are out by an hour, sometimes more!* I just use this web site and adjust the FS time accordingly to ensure things like dusk don't occur at the wrong time:
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

The real benefit of FS Real Time is (if it is important to you) perhaps keeping your FS clock on time once set. FS's clock does gradually get behind. But repetitive resetting of the clock during a flight can produce odd results such as AI refreshing (moving about and extra calls over ATC).

John

* - especially this week when much of Europe is on "Winter" time whilst the US changes this coming weekend.