AIRLIVE

Live aviation · world traffic

Zulu20:57:16Z
Streams113
Airfields81
Updated47M AGO

Time zones with live flights

Geography Age group: KS3: time zones and maps

Pilots, airlines and maps all need to agree what time it is.

Before you start

Read or play with these Learn topics first.

Live data for the board

Latest weather report (explained in "How do you read an airport weather report?")

See live streams at this airport

Worksheet: Time zones with live flights

Name: ______________________   Date: ____________

Use the live board for this worksheet.

  1. A plane leaves New York at 19:00 local time and flies for 7 hours. What is the local time in London when it lands? (London is 5 hours ahead.)
  2. Find the Zulu clock at the top of AirLive. What does Z stand for?
  3. Why do pilots all use one time?
  4. Pick two airports on the map. What is the time difference between them?

Class quiz

Ten questions on this lesson. Pupils open the link on any device. Nothing is stored about them.

Start the quiz

Teacher notes and answers

Suggested answers. Many will vary with the live data, so check units and working. The curriculum links are a guide only.

  1. 19:00 + 7 h = 02:00 New York time. London is 5 hours ahead, so 07:00 the next morning. (The gap is sometimes 4 hours for a few weeks a year when the clocks change on different dates.)
  2. Zulu is the aviation name for the letter Z, which marks UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), the time at 0° longitude.
  3. So flight plans, weather reports and radio calls mean the same thing everywhere, with no confusion crossing time zones.
  4. Answers will vary. A rule of thumb is one hour per 15° of longitude, but countries set their own time zones and clocks.

All lessons