APP for Sunset and Sunrise times in flight?

[Old King Coal]

Payscale - ditto that !

TwoTone-7 - Wrt "Unfortunately, all too often. People of your opinion confine themselves to the keyboard and no further afield."... is, to quote your own words, "subject to your speculative presumption" and I'd invite you to recall a quote from Seneca the Younger.

[Oceanic815Pilot]

I use SunFlight. It even gives me the Lat/Long of the sunset location as well as the time. Put a waypoint in the FMS and then use the abeam function to account for off great circle routing. It works well.

[halas]

I prefer the widows method. However the other day a particularly intense PUR of Moroccan descent "needed" to know when iftar was prior to departure to modify the service, but more importantly for his own count-down requirements.
When l asked what his forbears used prior to clocks, he said they used the windows, er, open tent flap method.

halas

[Emma Royds]

However the other day a particularly intense PUR of Moroccan descent "needed" to know when iftar was prior to departure to modify the service, but more importantly for his own count-down requirements.

Sounds far too intense. I would send him off to look at the IFE Day/Night map picture and get him to arrange his own 'count-down'! Should keep him busy for a minute or two at least!

Windows method works for me best too!

[perantau]

Looking out the window works for breaking fast. For starting the fast as mentioned by Airmann, it'll still be dark out. They'd need to know the time beforehand to prepare & consume the meal before the start time.

[Stone_cold]

Why is it that only in the Arab world are these requests made? Muslims all over the rest of the world travel and seem to find a way to manage their fasting needs and without imposing said fasting requirements on non-muslims . I am sure that they don't make these demands on non - Middle East Carriers . Outside of the middle east ,as an "infidel" , I am not even aware of when Ramadan starts / ends and I don't care to . I also eat whatever ,whenever and wherever I want , in full view of fasting Muslims with no problems .

Let them look out the window or find some other way of complying with their religion . What happens if you provide them with the incorrect info ? Big no - no , correct?

[aeropix]

Sunflight. The BEST app for this purpose, hands down.

Let me give a shout out to SUNFLIGHT (NOT to be confused with similarly named SunInFlight) which is written BY a Pilot, FOR Pilots.

Unlike the other APPS mentioned (and I have tried many of them) this APP allows you to input the departure airport, destination, flight times and altitude and VOILA - you get the sunrise, sunset and Prayer times accurate to within a minute or two, and it even shows WHERE the sun will set such that you can set a FIX in the FMC using LAT / Long or it will even display a map of the sunset location on the iPhone for you.

The other apps mentioned all require Lat/Long inputs while SUNFLIGHT already has a worldwide airport database, which makes it great for figuring this out before you fly.

I've been using this APP for 3 years, and been thoroughly impressed with it. The only routes where it ever gets confused is over the pole, but all other trips it's accuracy has been amazing.

itunes dot apple dot com/us/app/sunflight/id447540750?mt=8

[bigmountain]

BM, just curious, why donīt you use the app?

I don't have an App for it as I don't have an Android or an Iphone . +Company rules forbid PED in flight . So i suppose, just the mental math will have to do for some .

BM

[halas]

PED's are not forbidden in flight. Just the flight deck.

halas

[RemoveB4Flght]

My first year, first ramadan, I was asked about sunset by a cabin crew. I chuckled as the view out the right side was nothing but the last glimpse of the setting sun spread across the clouds. I said I assumed it would be about now, and apparently the passenger who had asked began voraciously consuming his meal. A fellow faster approached him contesting my judgement of the sunset and convinced him he had fouled up. I was treated to a tongue lashing on landing on how I had ruined his religious experience and surely secured his spot in the bitter depths of hell. After that my standard response was "I'm sorry, I don't wish to get involved in the religious affairs of others."

I lightened up a bit over the years and a quick tapping of the sunflight app and I include the timings in my crew briefing.

It amazed me that someone who was deeply concerned about this wouldn't have done a bit a research beforehand. Perhaps even a bit of planning by bringing some snacks so as not to stand up and go to the galley on short final looking for a meal (true story) or passing out and causing a medical diversion (also true).

Last thought.. surely it wouldn't be too difficult to program the equation into the IFE and provide the information to everyone who needs it that way?

[Stone_cold]

Simple . The company would then be responsible for any screw ups .. This should make you wonder why they (all 3 ME majors) publish nothing . Why do you want to get involved? At the end of the day , it is quite simple ..there is no actual time in flight , its all approximations . When they can't see the sun ..eat!! As other's have said ..use the " window" app.

Every year this comes up for discussion ...It's their religion , they should find a way to manage it . Don't expect the infidels to know !

[Swansafa]

I couldn't give a flog. If they call to ask for instructions on when to eat, I hang up. Too busy.

If I see them in the cabin and they ask, I say the sun's already up.

If they're waiting to eat, the sun's "still up for another hour or so", just in case.

I certainly won't be loading an app onto my phone which tries to explain any of that filthy garbage.