SEOW France 1940 Start Time Review

[II/JG77Hawk_5]

"The mission start times are as listed below in GMT local time starts are in noted as well:"

Saturday: 13:30 GMT ( 7:30AM EST, 6:30AM CST, 4:30AM PST, 1:30PM London time, 2:30PM Central European Time, 12:30am Aus East Sum Time(Sun), 9:30pm Aus West Stand Time)

Sunday: 20:00 GMT (3:00pm EST, 2:00pm CST, 12:00pm PST, 8:00pm London Time, 9:00pm Central European Time, 7:00am Aus East Summer Time(Mon), 4:00am Aus West Stand Time(Mon))

Wednesday: 02:00 GMT (8:00pm EST, 7:00pm CST, 5:00pm PST, 2:00am London Time, 3:00am Central European Time, 1:00pm Aus East Summer Time(Thurs), 10:00am Aus West Stand Time (Thurs))


As mentioned on TS, here in Australia east coast the Saturday start time was particularly late in starting at 02:00am (Sun) (1+1/2 hours late). It was my understanding the original start time was intended to be an Australian Zone Saturday night mission and one where all time zones had a reasonable chance to fly together. I corrected the GMT times to reflect the current understanding of start times as far as I can tell.

I noted that the US start times on Wednesday were out by one hour in relation to Europe and so I corrected. Is this right? Please post what are correct starts times as understood by US, UK & Europe. Clearly some thing was off. I know this mission currently starts at 1pm Thursday for me so I also referenced from there.

I added the Australian zone start times so we all have a clear understanding of every missions start time in all zones.
If we stick to correct start times then I don't think we need to adjust the mission start time on Saturday.

Cheers.
Hawk 5

[4shades]

It seems to me that the Saturday start time has slipped back at least an hour, which makes it impractical for east coast Australians who use daylight savings time.

Western Australians, like Ikey and myself, do not use daylight savings, which puts us 3 hours behind Sydney/Melbourne.

In order to keep Hawk5, Hawk12, Warg etc awake during Saturday missions, we need to kick off at 12.30 pm GMT (which is 2030 in Perth, 2330 in Melb/Syd and 2230 in Brisbane).

Cheers,
4S

[JG26_Nuke]

I did not see any change since the beginning, mission start times were constant 0300-1430-2100 in my timezone (GMT+1).

[II/JG77Hawk_5]

A corrected Saturday mission time to a more reasonable time for Australia would make start times as follows:
Saturday: 12:30 GMT ( 6:30AM EST, 5:30AM CST, 3:30AM PST, 12:30PM London time, 1:30PM Central European Time, 11:30pm Aus East Sum Time, 8:30pm Aus West Stand Time)

[JG26_Scannon]

The intent behind honoring the three specific geographical locations of participants with specific "days" was to allow the respective areas to dictate scheduling preference on their assigned day.
Wednesday Mission – North America
Saturday Mission – Australia/New Zealand
Sunday Mission - European
Therefore each respective area representatives have every right to make an adjustment to the specific start time of their assigned day if they wish. We would like to evaluate the impact on everyone prior to casting it in stone but I do not see an issue thus far. It sounds like you would prefer to move the Saturday start time up a couple hours earlier. The impact to the NA crowd is that it pretty much cancels out the west coast NA participants... but they weren't flying the Saturday morning mission anyway. The real impact is having Hayzee and myself join up at 6:30 AM and Badger at 5:30 AM so I will await his reaction prior to agreeing.

I would like to state that as a representative for the North American contingent that we would prefer the EST start time for the Wednesday mission to be 9:00 PM, whether Standard Time or Daylight Savings Time. The reason behind this is so that the west coast participants (UTC -8) can make it to the mission. If the mission starts earlier than this they cannot make it (I’m referring to all of the JG6 guys, Topusa, Hunter, Bigglescdn, etc) and I'm assuming the Euro guys do not have a problem with shifting as noted by sjonnie.


As I once again attempt to fully wrap my head around the cause for this recent scheduling issue I see the problem that I did not wholeheartedly embrace when the initial schedule was put together. The impact of the shift imposed by the various implementations of daylight savings time is not all simultaneous and creates the need for many schedules. And also because in Australia the toilets rotate counterclockwise when they flush a similar phenomenon exists with daylight savings time being adopted at opposite times of the year compared to the northern hemisphere with distinctions as follows:

United States Daylight Saving Time Start and End Dates
Year / Begins at 2 a.m./ Ends at 2 a.m.
2011/ March 13/ November 6
2012/ March 11/ November 4
2013/ March 10/ November 3
2014/ March 09/ November 2
Note: Arizona, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa do not observe Daylight Saving Time.

European Summer Time Start and End Dates
Year / Begins at 1 a.m./ Ends at 1 a.m.
2011/ March 27/ October 30
2012/ March 25/ October 28
2013/ March 31/ October 27
2014/ March 30/ October 26

Australian Daylight Saving Time End and Start Dates
Year / Ends at 2 a.m. / Starts at 2 a.m.

2011/ April 3/ October 9
2012/ April 1/ October 7
2013/ April 7/ October 6
2014/ Aprill 6/ October 5
What is clear here is that there are transitional months (March/April and October/November) where the schedule goes completely fubar because of DST.
Now that I am coming closer to understanding all of the dynamic issues with this worldwide scheduling problem hopefully the schedule can be updated correctly. If we can iron out the present specific concerns then we should be good until we hit the next transitional period. The next schedule update should be on March 11, 2012 followed by March 25, 2012 followed by April 1, 2012, followed by October 7, 2012, followed by October 28, 2012, followed by November 4, 2012.

Now hopefully this is not too complicated. From where we are at today, November 29, 2011, we will follow the current schedule (once established) until March 11, 2012 when North America changes to DST. This will affect the Wednesday mission only. Since NA prefers to have 9:00 PM EST as the start time Aus/NZ and Euro will need to shift by one hour. Then on March 25, 2012 the schedule for Sunday will shift by one hour due to Euro Summer Time. Then on April 1, 2012 the Saturday schedule will shift due to Australia Eastern Standard Time. The above time shifts will occur in reverse on October 7, 2012 (Aus/NZ back to DST), October 28, 2012 for Euro (back to Standard Time), and November 4, 2012 for NA (back to Standard Time).

If anyone follows this in theory please let me know through the messageboard or PM. It means having a schedule that is very fluid to adapt to each geographical area and switch for daylight savings time and standard time. When NA and Euro are in DST, Aus/NZ are in standard time and vice versa which could cancel each other out which escaped me before. And by all means if anyone else understands this differently please let me know. I will follow with a separate post for the revised schedule.

[1javasjonnie]

Thanks Scannon, this is a good overview and it helps in understanding the complexity of daylight saving changes and their influence on start times.
I would say this needs to be part of anyone's structure when attempting to stage a multi timezone campaign like the BoF campaign.

Meantime, I think Hawk_5 is trying to establish a new start time for saturdays mainly.

I think we can move the saturday start time forward by 1 hour.
This will remove 1.JaVA_KEBEN from the equasion. I am somehow reluctant but still willing to go ahead with that.

[1javasjonnie]

We need to state a start time for tomorrow, december 3rd, to avoid problems.
I suggest we start at the usual time given the fact there was no further reaction here.

[JG26_Scannon]

Hawk_5:

I need to correct the ammended schedule you posted as the time for EST, CST and PST are incorrect by one hour:

Saturday: 12:30 GMT ( 7:30AM EST, 6:30AM CST, 4:30AM PST, 12:30PM London time, 1:30PM Central European Time, 11:30pm Aus East Sum Time, 8:30pm Aus West Stand Time)

As I see it these times are now in sync. USA EST is GMT -5 hence the 7:30 AM start time.