ETA confusion
Hi everyone!
I have a question for you, and I know it's a stupid newbie question, but as it says in the header for this forum: Ask the questions you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. I should probably know the answer to this one a long time ago, but here goes:
What is the correct procedure to give ATC en ETA? Is it relative or absolute zulu time? In other words: If the time is 13:40 and I state an ETA for a certain waypoint as "ETA 50". Does that mean I have told ATC my ETA is 13:50 or 14:30 (in other words 50 minutes from current time)?
I thought I knew the answer to this one, but I was confused the other day when flying my first international flight (very low density traffic-wise, Northern Europe), at first contact with ATC after crossing the FIR, he asked for my ETA to a certain waypoint. And when given, he asked me if I could confirm I was flying VFR. After a few exchanges back and forth, I ended up saying ETA 14:02 zulu, just to avoid any misunderstanding. But it still had me wondering if I had the right "short format" to begin with or not. Can anyone help me, please?