AIRAC Effective date versus FMS Database

[Zorro_PL]

Hi folks,

I fly Embraer 190 and I wonder why it is designed by Honeywell that FMS change its database on 0900z not on 0001z as AIRAC starts to be effective on midnight.

Anybody?

[john_tullamarine]

Been a long time minor operational problem. The data comes from the US so, guess what, the time suits the US requirements. The usual local change, likewise, will suit the local time zone. Australia, for ever and a day, has run the effective time to be in the wee hours when there is the minimum traffic about.

I flew freighters for quite a while and it was always a major pain when the changeover to the new charts occurred half way through a tour of duty back of the clock. Mind you, the benefits of flying freighters, overall, greatly outweighed such minor nuisances.

For the FMS, just meant that we needed to run a manual change to suit the local regulatory time requirements.

[turbidus]

Each country determines the exact time of the switchover to coincide with low air traffic volume.
In the U.S. it is 0900 Zulu or 1200 a.m. to 0400 a.m. local depending on time of year and zone.

[FlightDetent]

Wonder if this could be pin-programmable. On a smart airplane like I hear the 190 is.

[Roj approved]

In my company based in Australia, the Eastcoast is UTC +10, Westcoast +8 and we do the change over after 1600Z the day Prior. So that's at 0200 EST, the day before. Our domestic flying day mostly begins around 2000Z, 0600L, so by the time we are setting off on the third sector its change over time.

It's not automatic in the Airbus.