Spring ahead

Spring ahead

Print this handy chart to help you remember which conversion formula to use.

Do you think in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), GMT, or Zulu time? Good. You can stop reading. For the rest of us pilots, who prefer to set our watches for local time - and then have to do the math when we're flying - remember that daylight-saving time goes into effect early Sunday morning (except in Arizona, Hawaii, and some counties in other states).

So spring ahead, advance your watches and clocks one hour, and subtract one hour from your conversion factor to Zulu time. And if you get it wrong, you won't be alone. Even the FAA has at times missed it when trying to convert UTC to local time for notams. For more on time zones, conversions, and aviation, see " Got a minute?"

March 31, 2006