FS Times Skip Ahead

[Samuel Arnold]

Recently I flew NRT-CDG in the 747 on ANA flight 205.
I left at 1120 local time and was supposed to arrive in Paris at 1640 local.
However, I actually arrived at 2240. That's a whopping 6 hours late!

Now thankfully the FS Logbook system keeps an accurate record of the flight duration so I could calculate the actual time from that.

I noticed throughout the flight that FS would reload itself at between 1-3 hour intervals, and each time it would gain 1 hour on the clock. This is where the 6 hour skip accumulated from.

It's very annoying, arriving in the middle of the night, instead of mid-afternoon - not to mention vastly unrealistic.


>Does anyone else encounter this problem?
>Perhaps someone knows a fix to it, or a tactic to prevent it?
>FS Real Time; would this make a difference?

[Aaron Robinson]

Topic moved. This is a support issue. Please post in the correct section in the future. Thank you.

[RatherBFlyin]

For FS9, FS Real Time works great. I haven't tried it with FSX though, and I have yet to run into any time problems with FSX (other than a timezone being an hour off).

[Samuel Arnold]

So I now have FS Real Time (thanks for that heads-up, Tim ), however it requires registration to make it function fully.
I began flying, but it said it expired and had to close. It didn't work properly unless it's started before FS is opened, so I wasn't going to forfeit my flight for that.

Should I register it for 15 USD? http://www.3dsoftworks.net/products/fsrealtime/cart.asp
Problem is, I'm in New Zealand. What sort of fees can I expect when I use my Visa internationally with the currency exchanging stuff?

[RatherBFlyin]

From what I understand (it's been a long time since I last used it), you can use it for an hour, then have to restart it. It shouldn't have a problem restarting in the middle of the flight. I ended up getting a key for it though since I found the need to restart it every hour rather frustrating.

As for international fees, I'm not sure. I believe that depends on who issued your card to you. My bank charges a 1% fee any time I use my card to purchase something from a vendor outside the US. A bank I used previously simply charged a flat $2USD every time.

[sanins192]

This is a known problem and for some reason MS never decided to fix it properly. I use a timer to time my flights. That way I know for certain how long I've been flying and can calculate the arrival time, if I know how many minutes past the hour. At Avsim I believe there is a download called 'FSTimer'.

[Samuel Arnold]

Thanks guys.

I'll look into that FSTimer, but if FS Real Time works, then I won't worry.

I'm going to visit the bank today anyway, so I'll ask them about the fees.

It's not just that restarting business with FS Real Time, but the nag message on the screen is impossible to deal with.

[DMM200]

I wind up recording the departure time, using the stopwatch inside the cockpit (CHR or clock), that way you can include time compression.

In FS9, the times are usually correct, maybe a bit slower or an hour off in the time zone. I haven't run into many problems with the default timer though.

[Samuel Arnold]

I wind up recording the departure time, using the stopwatch inside the cockpit (CHR or clock), that way you can include time compression.

In FS9, the times are usually correct, maybe a bit slower or an hour off in the time zone. I haven't run into many problems with the default timer though.

But the cockpit clock records time relative to the local time. So if that's off, so is the timer.

[Tom Alder]

I wind up recording the departure time, using the stopwatch inside the cockpit (CHR or clock), that way you can include time compression.

In FS9, the times are usually correct, maybe a bit slower or an hour off in the time zone. I haven't run into many problems with the default timer though.

But the cockpit clock records time relative to the local time. So if that's off, so is the timer.

No, the timer is just a straight-forward stopwatch. it records the amount of time between you switching it off, and then off again. I use it also, and it works a treat.

[DMM200]

I wind up recording the departure time, using the stopwatch inside the cockpit (CHR or clock), that way you can include time compression.

In FS9, the times are usually correct, maybe a bit slower or an hour off in the time zone. I haven't run into many problems with the default timer though.

But the cockpit clock records time relative to the local time. So if that's off, so is the timer.

No, the timer is just a straight-forward stopwatch. it records the amount of time between you switching it off, and then off again. I use it also, and it works a treat.

BINGO

[Samuel Arnold]

Not on the default panels. If you cross a time-zone and the time skips ahead 1-hr, the timer records an extra hour also.
Only the FS logbook records time from the beginning to end of a flight (including time compressions).

[sanins192]

The problem with the default timer is that it resets when it goes past 10 hours, which is inconvinenet for longhauls. I used to use the logbook, but it wasn't the easiest method and it was hard to calcluate time if you fly a flight in more than one session. FSTimer works with time compression, and does not stop at 10 hours.

[DMM200]

On payware aircraft, such as the PMDG 747, I can tell you that it doesn't skip ahead at all, nor does it reset after 10 hours.

[sanins192]

Some payware timers are better than others. PMDG's is good because it saves the time when you save the flight, whereas a lot of others don't.