LAANC Start Time - Daylight Savings Issue

[PapaBob]

I planned an early morning flight for Class D airspace, got LAANC approval through Airmap yesterday, sent it to DJI Flysafe and got an unlocking license. The control tower operates between 7:00 and 23:00 local time. The 7:00 am start time is normally 12:00UTC but is 11:00UTC when daylight savings is in effect. When I later read over the LAANC authorization, it commenced at 12:00Z even though Airmap had my flight starting 7:am local (11:00Z). Thinking I made an error, I canceled the flight with LAANC and created a new one with the same start time (7:00 am local). LAANC gave me a new authorization, again starting at 12:00Z or 8:00 a.m. local. Airmap still had it as a 7:00 am flight but the LAANC approval started at 8:00. Technically, I was not authorized to fly between 7:00am and 8:00 am.

The solution was to fly at sunrise (then Class G airspace), made sure I stayed under the Facility Map max altitude and ended operations before 7:00 am. This turned out to be a better time to photograph anyway due to light and local weather.

I looks to me like LANNC did not adjust for daylight savings time in its written authorization. Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[brett8883]

I planned an early morning flight for Class D airspace, got LAANC approval through Airmap yesterday, sent it to DJI Flysafe and got an unlocking license. The control tower operates between 7:00 and 23:00 local time. The 7:00 am start time is normally 12:00UTC but is 11:00UTC when daylight savings is in effect. When I later read over the LAANC authorization, it commenced at 12:00Z even though Airmap had my flight starting 7:am local (11:00Z). Thinking I made an error, I canceled the flight with LAANC and created a new one with the same start time (7:00 am local). LAANC gave me a new authorization, again starting at 12:00Z or 8:00 a.m. local. Airmap still had it as a 7:00 am flight but the LAANC approval started at 8:00. Technically, I was not authorized to fly between 7:00am and 8:00 am.

The solution was to fly at sunrise (then Class G airspace), made sure I stayed under the Facility Map max altitude and ended operations before 7:00 am. This turned out to be a better time to photograph anyway due to light and local weather.

I looks to me like LANNC did not adjust for daylight savings time in its written authorization. Has anyone had a similar experience?

So did you try resubmitting with a 6am start time? There’s really no drawback to requesting a wider time frame. May be some issues with the communication between AirMap and LAANC.

 

[PapaBob]

Brett: I had tried that but got the same approval times from LAANC. I figured out the problem after the fact upon review of the FAA chart supplement for the airport. The legend tells me that during daylight savings I have to adjust the stated Class D operating times by an hour. It appears that LAANC expects you to know this and does not adjust its authorization program for daylight saving. Thus, the approval for 1200Z which looked like 8:00 am was actually for 7:00 am and I was good to fly. My problem was that I actually read the authorization and took it literally. Ha! Thanks for taking the time to respond and I hope this information is useful to another member.