Time Calculations

[Broncs]

Hi All,

Must admit I only pop onto this forum when I have a question and invariably get an answer.

I have to do a great deal of hour and minute additions and subtractions with reference to aircraft component time since new and cycles since new etc.

I was just wondering if there is a freeware program available which could help or, to be honest, do it for me. I'll be so happy when someone invents a metric clock.

Regards, Broncs.

[stickyb]

How about Excel?

[jetcollie]

You need a sexagesimal calculator. There are various freeware & shareware versions available - try a Google search.

[bnt]

I agree - Excel is a good tool for that kind of thing. There are a couple of useful things I found:
- use Date or Time formatting on cells as appropriate. If in doubt, set the formatting you want manually, don't assume Excel knows what you mean.
- one key to using dates and times in Excel is to remember that, in its internal numbering system, 1 = a day. So, an hour = 1/24 and a second = 1/24/3600 or 1/86400. e.g. =NOW()+6/24 means six hours from now.
- if you type in e.g. 12:34 it assumes that's hh:mm (hours:minutes). If you mean mm:ss (minutes:seconds), enter 12:34.0

[Keef]

Depending on what software it needs to interface with, Excel is likely to be the answer

It will handle minutes and seconds, add them, process them, convert them to horus and decimals, or whatever you need. You do need to learn to "drive" it, but once you have it, you'll never look back!

[BOAC]

There are many options for you, depending on what needs to 'happen' to the results. A spreadsheet of any sort is indeed the simplest, but other options exist like VB.net, or other scriptings. A look at the task would help.

[Broncs]

Hi again,

I may not have explained very well. As an example: a component is installed on an aircraft at 2,345 hrs and 10 minutes airframe time and is removed at 6,789 hrs and 6 minutes, how long has it been installed for? I know I'm setting myself up here because I do know the answer!

I'm a pathetic babe in the woods re excel formulas, so any assistance is really appreciated :(

Regards,

Broncs

[MetoPower]

Easy:

Enter hours and minutes as 6375:25 (NOT 6,375:25 or any other way)

Assuming A1 is ON AIRCRAFT (= Installed), and B1 OFF AIRCRAFT (= Removed), then: in C1: =B1-A1 (or whatever order you decide for the columns). This will give you the answer in Hr:Min
Should you need the answer in Hrs & Decimals, then in D1 =HOUR(C1)+(VALUE(MINUTE(C1))/6)/10
Of course as the value (hours) you will insert may exceed 24:00, do not forget to format the cells in columns A, B & C (NOT D) as [h]:mm so excel will recognise the hours values instead of going into other figures such as days ...
Should you need further info, do not hesitate.

Have fun

MP

[green granite]

You might find this helpful: Excel Date & Time Calculation. Excel Date & Time Formulas/Function (http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/date-time-calculations.htm)

[Bushfiva]

Nothing like as useful as Excel, but you might be interested in entering "6,789 hours 6 minutes minus 2,345 hours 10 minutes" into Google for those "I need an answer now" moments.

Of course, since Google doesn't cast correctly, you then need to do "185.163889 days in hours" and "0.93334 hours in minutes", but you get the drift :}

[Mac the Knife]

Why use Excel? Easy enough to do in any programming language (including....gulp...BASIC)!

:ok:

[Keef]

It's extremely easy in Excel - you don't really need anything other than an Excel sheet.
Type in the two numbers, tell it the third box is one minus t'other, and job done.

It'll show the input and the output in hh:mm:ss but with :00 on the end of all three, it ain't hard.

[acebaxter]

As I remember from doing my logbook in Excel it does have limitations. I believe it's around 10,000 hours where Excel gets totally lost. Under that limit it works great.

[stickyb]

Easy:

Enter hours and minutes as 6375:25 (NOT 6,375:25 or any other way)


MP


Sorry, there is a much easier way in EXcel. Why use decimals and all that conversion????

Format cells as custom [h]:mm:ss, then enter the numbers as 6375:10 and 6789:06, or 6789:6, then in the third cell a formula such as =b1-a1 will yield the answer 413:56:00

If the seconds bother you then change the format to [h]:mm

[MetoPower]

Acebaxter:

Excel is OK above 10000 hrs.

Stickib:

This is exactly the formulae I recommanded in my previous post (subtract the low value from the high one. Regarding the decimals, some feel more at ease (for whatever reason) with the answer converted from hours & minutes to hours & decimals (instead of minutes).

Happy contrails

MP