Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Flight Length outside Schedule Guidelines

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Flight Length outside Schedule Guidelines - Huh?

DVA7504
Captain, B757-200

Joined on July 04 2009

Naperville, IL USA

32 legs, 88.7 hours
1 legs, 1.7 hours online
30 legs, 85.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 31 2009 21:36 ET by Robert Clements

This afternoon I flew from from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Kingston, Jamaica on Air Jamaica Flight #32. In the flight report, one line in "other information" says "Flight Length outside Schedule Guidelines". What does this mean?

Bob

Robert Clements (DVA7504)

DVA7180
Captain, MD-88

Joined on March 17 2009

Richmond, BC Canada

59 legs, 109.5 hours
4 legs, 6.8 hours online
56 legs, 101.4 hours ACARS
2 legs, 3.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 31 2009 22:59 ET by Lindsey Wiebe

I've often wondered that myself. I'm thinking there is like a max of 150% of schedule length for that flight or something like that.

Lindsey Wiebe

Captain, MD-88

DVA2724
Senior Captain, L-1011-100

Joined on December 04 2005
Million Mile Club
Seven Century Club

"Long Live the TRISTAR!!"
Concord, GA USA

714 legs, 3,467.6 hours
43 legs, 80.2 hours online
466 legs, 2,709.6 hours ACARS
5 legs dispatched, 26.7 hours

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 09:59 ET by Ken Nesbitt

The website take averages on flight times. I can't remember what the percentage is but if you fly longer than that percentage then it will flag it. CHEERS

Ken Nesbitt

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

DVA3382
Senior Captain, B717-200
OLP, COMM

Joined on July 26 2006
Event Half Century Club
50 State Club
Globetrotter
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Kangaroo Club
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White Knuckles Club

"Go For Launch"
Houston, TX

3,454 legs, 9,127.1 hours
720 legs, 1,205.6 hours online
3,392 legs, 8,967.9 hours ACARS
61 legs, 145.0 hours event
0 legs dispatched, 6.1 hours

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 10:11 ET by Ryan Daugherty

If you're under it, a few of my short ones have been flagged too.

RD

Ryan Daugherty

Senior Captain, B717-200

DVA057
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM

Joined on June 02 2002
Events Century Club
Six Century Club
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"We Are ... Penn State!"
Atlanta, GA USA

672 legs, 1,338.4 hours
531 legs, 1,076.4 hours online
392 legs, 786.1 hours ACARS
190 legs, 406.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 10:16 ET by Terry Eshenour

We have a time zone gremlin that pops up its nasty head on occasion. Time Zones are under continuous change particularly as it relates to Daylight Savings Time and some times for political reasons. The result is system time calculations off by 1 hour.

In Robert's case, the system calculated the avg. time to be 0.6 hrs for a 524 nm subsonic flight. I will have a look at the Time Zone for Kingston.

"Trip 524 Nautical Miles
Logged Time 2.3 hours (average time: 0.6 hours)"

Should you find other obvious time calc. errors, please create a Help Desk Issue with a link to the flight report in question.

EDIT: The Time Zones are correct. Same UTC offset GMT -5. Kingston does not observe DST; Fort Lauderdale does. Creating an Issue Tracker.

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA3809
First Officer, B767-300
OLP

Joined on December 12 2006
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club

East Petersburg, PA USA

329 legs, 829.1 hours
124 legs, 239.2 hours online
291 legs, 767.0 hours ACARS
25 legs, 52.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 12:23 ET by Garen Evans

I too have received this flag (i.e., "Flight Length outside Schedule Guidelines"), and never really understood it. So from what it sounds like to me the system calculates the flight time based on the actual departure and arrival times? And as a result of DST it might get fouled up somehow? Wouldn't it be easier to simply calculate the estimated time enroute (ETE) based on the flight data? For example, my own personal observations suggests that the length of the flight can be estimated as a function of great circle distance. So for example, in Robert's case, and using my data I estimate 108.6 minutes, or 1.81 hours block time. Pretty close to Robert's logged time from KFLL to MKJP, though it would certainly have been considered a late flight since it exceeded ETE+15 minutes (or 2.05 hours). I'd be glad to share my methodology/formulas if it's any help.

Garen Evans (DVA3809)

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
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"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,326 legs, 9,362.8 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
1,984 legs, 8,155.9 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,362 legs, 9,497.7 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours
CURRENTLY LOGGED IN

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 13:09 ET by Luke Kolin

There is an issue with how the system handles airports that do not observe DST year-round. That's the problem here.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA7504
Captain, B757-200

Joined on July 04 2009

Naperville, IL USA

32 legs, 88.7 hours
1 legs, 1.7 hours online
30 legs, 85.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 18:48 ET by Robert Clements

Terry, thanks for the e-mail. I work with timezones for a living. So, I appreciate the headaches!

Bob

Robert Clements (DVA7504)

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 19:06 ET by Terry Eshenour

Then you can appreciate the number of time zone definitiions we have to cope with in our system. It isn't a matter of just having 24.

Me too, I worked and lived across the International Date Line with a 12 - 14 hr time difference between home office and the field. The fractional time zones are the ones that put my mind in a knot.

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on September 01 2009 20:27 ET by Luke Kolin

We're in good shape for this one. I'm going to try and do an upgrade later this evening, which should resolve the schedule issues, load the latest Innovata data set and get us to the 0909 AIRAC files.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

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