Wierd Flight Arrival and Departure times in the US

[londoneasyjetboi]

Since I have been in aviation, I have always wondered why in the US, arrival and departure times of flights are random times, like depart at 0706 and arrive at 1137, why are they shown in round times ie 0700 dept 1135 arrival like most if not all other countries I have travelled to?

Thanks

[BelArgUSA]

I do not know which airline the story is about... Call it Piedmont, Ozark, Allegheny, or Frontier...
One of these many nice little airlines...
xxx
These management people heard majors AA and UA using very "accurate" ETA times given on the cockpit PA...
Like "Folks, we shall be arriving in Cleveland at 10:18"...
Instead that domestic airline would announce the ETA in Cleveland at 10:00, or 10:30... round numbers.
So the director of operations sent a note to all pilots, as follows...
"From now on, you shall announce an accurate ETA, like 10:23 or 10:37..."
xxx
A few days later, all pilots, with a smile, all announced ETA of all flights to be "10:23 OR 10:37".
Exactly as specified by the director of operations.
xxx
:8
Happy contrails

[BelArgUSA]

Oh, Rainboe... to make you cry more...
xxx
In Yankistan, people count 11, 12, 1, 2... (hrs).
A serious deficiency of advanced mathematics education in public schools.
Some pilots there, need to learn to count 12, then 13, 14, 15, maybe to 23...
xxx
Have you heard FAA ATPL graduates asking about GMT...?
Like saying "it is 10:16 pee-emm GMT"...?
I heard that... worse to try to explain what UTC is...
Then I also heard them say "it is 10:16pm GMT summer savings time"...
Yes Sir... these were a few F/Os I was flying with.
xxx
I guess in Trafalgar Sq, in summer, at 23:16, must be 22:16 in the Greenwich area.
Must be quite inconvenient for the Eastenders taking the last coach.
xxx
When visiting Miami, I love to be asked "Hey man, you got the time...?"
I show the bloke my wristwatch for him to read.
It is an old "Breitling" with 24 hrs analog dial always kept on GMT.
Then I make my intellectual face, and after converting, tell him the time.
He must think I am an old drunk, and that I forgot winding the watch...
xxx
:E
Happy contrails

[Rainboe]

I step back in admiration....a real pilot! Always on GMT! I love it! I always go onto local time myself as I've spent too long in bars waiting for the others to turn up at the appointed time having messed up a mental conversion to local time! And as for India....+5 1/2 hours on GMT....work that one out when you wake up! (turn the watch upside down and take off 1/2hour!)

Actually, to most people, even Brits, 'Greenwich Mean' is a mysterious place that has it's own time, and they're not sure what or where it is! We all live under British Summer Time (BST), and even people walking along the river in Greenwich will not really know where this mysterious place 'Greenwich Mean' is that has its own time (British education is dreadful now- all they seem to learn is sex education involving homosexual relationships, and knife combat. You might have noticed they don't teach in Brit schools anymore the difference between there, their and they're. They leave it to me...and it's getting too much!).

[WHBM]

Regarding precise US schedule times to the minute, they have always done this, like the railway.

For example, choosing a random example from my timetable collection, Braniff flight 5, depart Kansas City 12.42, arrive Wichita 1.57.

And that was in 1940 with a DC-3, and no slot times or things like that !

[Rainboe]

If you think about it, why not? Do bells ring on times divisible by 5? What's so special about 07.40, 09.50 etc? Precise timing establishes an order which can be used to plan resources (gates, staff, pushback equipment).

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Surely one reason why a US airline might publish precise timings is the monitoring of delay times and their publication.

If I'm going to be named and shamed if I'm more than 5 mins late, I'm certainly not going to round off the times to the nearest 5 mins, as I'm using up the margin. A flight expected at 7.06 is still 'on time' at 7.11, whereas if declared at 7.05 it would now be 'late'.