# Why the schedule shows airport time, and how to change it

> Every time on the schedule is drawn in the airport's own zone, not your device's, so a 9:00 AM lesson stays 9:00 AM wherever you check it from. You can switch to your own zone for yourself.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/airport-time-and-time-zones
Section: Scheduling and dispatch. For: Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters, Technicians.

Every time on the schedule is drawn in the airport's own zone, so a 9:00 AM lesson reads
9:00 AM whether you check it from the front desk or from another state. Every school needs
one: until it is set, members cannot book themselves. Admins set it under
`Settings → Organization` (web console) or `Settings → School time zone` (mobile app).
You can switch your own view to your own zone under `You → Profile` (web console).

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters, Technicians

## What airport time means

AerScheduler picks the zone for a booking in this order:

1. the time zone on the **location** the booking is at
2. failing that, the **organization's** time zone
3. failing both, whatever zone the device you are reading it on is in

The aircraft and the instructor are going by the clock on the wall at the field, so that is
the clock the board uses. A 9:00 AM lesson stays 9:00 AM in the day board, the week board, the
booking form and the detail panel, no matter where the person looking at it happens to be.

## Set your school's time zone

Setting up a new school asks for its time zone. It is filled in from the home airport when you
pick one from the search, or from your computer or phone when you type the airport yourself,
and you can change it before you carry on.

To change it later, go to `Settings → Organization` (web console) and pick a zone, or
on iPhone `Settings → School time zone` (mobile app). Owners and admins only.
Don't confuse it with the **Time zone** row just above it in the app: that one is your own
clock and never moves anybody's booking.

![Settings, Organization](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/settings-org-timezone.png)

The list opens on the zones most schools want, with **UTC (Zulu)** at the top for anyone who
works in Zulu. Everything else follows underneath, grouped by region. You can search it by
the things you would actually type: the zone name, the city, or the identifier of a field in
it, so **KBOI** finds Mountain and **KMIA** finds Eastern.

It is the single setting that makes everybody's schedule agree, members need it to book
themselves, and it is a hard prerequisite for
[multi-day bookings](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/overnight-and-multi-day-trips), which stay greyed out
until it is set. A school's zone can be changed but not cleared.

## Set a time zone for a second airport

If the school operates from more than one field, give each location its own zone under
`Facilities → Locations` (web console). A location's zone beats the organization's
for bookings at that field, so a school with a base in Denver and a satellite in Phoenix
labels each booking against the right clock instead of splitting the difference.

The quickest way to set one is to let the airport do it. Search by identifier or name
(**KBOI**, or just **Boise**) and pick the field. On the web that is the **Airport or site
name** box. On iPhone, open the location, tap **Airport**, and search there. The zone is
filled in from the airport's own position, along with the city, state and country, and we
store the airport's identifier so pre-flight weather is for that field rather than a nearby
reporter. You can still change the zone afterwards, and you can still use a name we do not
recognise, in which case nothing is filled in and you pick the zone yourself. A typed site
has no identifier and no weather. Re-pick from the list to attach one to a location that
already exists.

A location with no zone of its own carries a **No time zone** badge in that list, which is
the quickest way to find the ones still falling back to the organization's.

## Choose what you see

Every member controls their own view from the **My time zone** card on
`You → Profile` (web console).

![Profile, My time zone](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/profile-time-zone-card.png)

Two settings on the card:

| Setting              | Options                                  | What it does                                                             |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Show the schedule in | Airport time (recommended), My time zone | Which clock the whole schedule is drawn in                               |
| Time zone            | Automatic, or a zone you pick            | What "your time" means. Automatic follows your device and moves with you |

The default is airport time, and it is the recommendation for a reason. Switching to your own
zone is for the person who genuinely works remotely and thinks in their own clock. If you fly
at the field, leave it alone.

## When a time gets a zone label

A time is labelled with its zone abbreviation, and the detail panel appends your own time, only
when the two disagree **at that instant**. When they agree there is no label, because a label
on every time would be noise.

That instant matters. Phoenix and Denver read the same for half the year and differ for the
other half, so the same pair of people see labels appear and disappear at the DST changeover
without anybody changing a setting.

## If no time zone is set anywhere

With no zone on the location and none on the organization, two things go wrong.

**Members can't book themselves.** Every school has flying hours (6:00 AM to 10:00 PM unless you
change them), and hours mean nothing without a clock to read them on. So a student or renter
who tries to book is told their school hasn't set its time zone yet. Owners and admins get a
notification the first time that happens, at most once a day, in the app and by email, with a
button that goes straight to the setting. The front desk can still book for them in the
meantime.

**Times fall back to each person's own device.** The schedule then genuinely looks different to
different people, and it changes under one person when they travel. That is the state that
produces "the times moved" support calls.

Owners and admins see a banner on the dashboard and the schedule, on the web and in the app,
while the zone is missing. It offers the airport's zone when we can work it out from the
school's airport, so fixing it is one click.

> **Important:** Setting the zone also switches on your flying hours, for everybody including the front desk. A
> school that never changed them books 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM airport time from then on. Change them
> under `Settings → Booking preferences` (web console) if you fly earlier or later.

> **Careful:** In the Month view, a booking's chip can show a different start time from the one on the day
> and week boards. If a month chip and the day board disagree, trust the day board, or open the
> booking to read its time in the detail panel.

## Why this matters to the bill

Two places where the zone is not cosmetic:

- **Nights away.** A multi-day trip bills a minimum number of hours per night, and the nights
  are counted at the airport. This is why multi-day bookings cannot even be turned on until a
  zone exists: with the count falling back to a device, two people booking the same trip would
  be billed differently.
- **Local midnight.** A booking that ends exactly at midnight is a same-day booking. One that
  ends at 12:15am is a night away. Which side of the line you are on is decided by the
  airport's clock, not yours.

## Related

- [Book a trip that keeps the aircraft overnight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/overnight-and-multi-day-trips): Why a time zone is a prerequisite, and how nights are counted.
- [Booking rules and settings](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/booking-rules-and-settings): The rest of the settings that change how booking behaves.