The current time where I’m at is Tuesday 2:30 p.m. The current time in Perth, AU is Wednesday 3:30 a.m.
If a plane leaves at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday from here and travels on a 17* hour flight to Perth, what time would that person actually arrive? I figured it to be Wednesday at midnight, almost Thursday. Can someone help me with this?
*The true flight time according to Expedia is 27-30 hours, but my book is written in the future, and by golly, it’s only going to take 17 hours to fly there.
6AM Tuesday here (er, wherever you are) is 7PM Tuesday in Perth. So the plane left at 7PM Tuesday as far as Perthites are concerned. Seventeen hours later is 12PM (noon) Wednesday. OK?
Thanks! Noon, not midnight. Got it.
This sort of question is why international flights (and quite a few domestic) all operate on Greenwhich Mean Time. You convert your local take-off time to GMT, add the flight time, then covert GMT to local time at your destination. It takes some getting used to, but I am now at peace with the notion that 8:30 am local time where I live is 13:30 GMT, at least until Daylight Savings Time expires, at which point it becomes 14:30 GMT.
Oh, bother… it IS confusing… but at least professional aviation operates in just one time zone.