Originally Posted by
Mach E Avelli
All of these fancy watches have one thing in common - whether a 3000 buck Rolex or a 300 buck Timex they only tell the time now. The OP seems to have a problem with how to apply zone time for later in the flight when a forecast published in UTC will take effect. For that, all that is needed is to know the zone time difference, and how to add or subtract that from UTC. Mental arithmetic is the quickest and easiest way to do this. No magic watch required. Assuming you know roughly how long your flight will take from where you are sitting while planning, simply look at the clock on the wall. Big hand/little hand (or if a digital clock, make it easy and set it to 24 hour format). Getting forecast updates in flight is a no-brainer, because all aircraft GPS nav systems display UTC.
A bit like instantly knowing reciprocals (adding/subtracting 180), this stuff is an essential piloting skill, easily learned by all but the most dyslexic.. Maybe an examination in basic mental math should be part of the PPL test?
Yup.
Stopped wearing a watch as my hair started falling off the top and migrating to other parts of the body.
A flight plan has the info that is needed on the top, and good ones add that to the Wx brief and Notams. The times don't mean anything by themselves, they only mean something when correlated to the operations data. Alternatively, get foreflight on your iPad. After 11 years of using it, I believe it has a touch of divinity or at least is worthy of sainthood. It is the only item on the aircraft I trust to function at all times. And coffee... The Wx brief is a thing of beauty, as are the Notams. I recall one Notam pack for a polar that ran to 88 pages, not including Wx, or the RIF FPL... having some rational presentation goes a long way to helping to have a good day out. No wonder Jepp is easing out of their EFB..
