Have you found yourself wondering about the date format used in aviation? Maybe you want to know if there is a set format that the date must follow? Or perhaps you are curious and want to know more?
Whatever brought you here today, we have the answer for you!
When it comes to flying and aviation, everything must follow a pattern and be done correctly.
This is to ensure the safety of crew and passengers, and also help make training a smooth process. But that means many of us find ourselves wondering about these standardized formats, and the answers aren’t that easy to find.
Well, no more! Today, we are here with the answers that you need. Just keep reading to find out what the standard date format used in aviation is and everything else you need to know about it!
What Is The Date Used For In Aviation?
Before we dive in and look at the standard date format in aviation, let’s first take a look at what the date is used for in aviation.
Just like in other parts of our lives, the date is used in aviation to mark when flights are taking off and landing.
The date will be listed on flight plans, tickets, and present in the cockpit of the plane too.
It’s important when planning sky traffic that every flight has a date and time of when it can take off and land, otherwise there would be chaos in the skies!
And this isn’t a recent thing either. The date has been used in all forms of aviation since the early 1900s.
Again, this was used to keep track of flights, and came in handy during wars when commanders needed to know where their crew were and when their planes were expected back.
The date also helps keep pilots in the loop. It can be disorientating in the sky, especially if you are crossing several time zones, so having the date present in the cockpit can help keep pilots grounded and aware of their surroundings.
But how the date is formatted is important here. It’s no secret that the date is formatted differently across the globe, and when you see a different date format, it’s easy to do a double-take and get confused.
While this brief confusion is fine for most of us, it could cause a fatal error in the sky. So, a date format needed to be created to ensure that all pilots knew how the date would be displayed in planes and all other communication.
A Brief History Of The Date Format In Aviation
The date format was created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in the twentieth century and is still used today.
The ICAO is an international organization that deals with issues related to air travel. They were formed in 1944, and they’ve been working ever since.
Their main goal is to promote safe, efficient, and sustainable global civil aviation. And their mission statement says that they do so through “coordination among governments, industry, and civil society.”
A part of this coordination is ensuring that the date and other information are formatted correctly in a way that is universally recognized.
Whether wartime strategies are being drawn up, or commercial flights mapped out for summer holidays, having one date format saves time and ensures that all flights and aviation correspondence can be created quickly and understood easily.
Now that we have established the importance of a universal date format in aviation, let’s take a look at what the standard date format is.
What Is The Standard Date Format Used In Aviation?
When flying, pilots often have to enter their flight data into the cockpit computer.
This information is then displayed on the instrument panel or read out over the radio. The data entered includes things such as altitude, airspeed, heading, and the date!
As we have already established, having a date format is super important, so let’s take a look at what format is used.
There are two main types of date formats used in aviation:
- DD/MM/YYYY (DD day, MM month, YY year)
- YYYY-MM-DD (YYYY four-digit year, MM two-digit month, DD two-digit day).
You can expect to see these date formats used interchangeably across aviation, but they are only valid within the context of the aircraft itself.
But that doesn’t mean the date won’t be written in this way across other correspondence in aviation, like flight plans for example.
Often, you will see the date listed without the dashes and hyphens, making it look like one long number. Here, you will need to put the breaks in yourself to identify the year, month, and day of the flight.
As we mentioned earlier, the format of dates can vary across the globe, and pilots need to be prepared for that. Just like how the time changes when you fly across different countries, the date format can change too.
If you are entering a flight plan for an international flight, the date format must be consistent with the country’s local time zone.
The time and date are not only present in the cockpit, but on the flight plan too, which tells the pilot where the plane needs to go and when.
A Brief Look At Flight Plans
As we mentioned above, flight plans are an integral part of the aviation industry. They help keep the skies open to flights that need to take off and ensure that there are no collisions or incidents.
They also tell a pilot when their flight is taking off and landing and can help them calculate the duration of the flight.
The FAA recommends that pilots use the following formats when entering flight plans:
- DD/MM/YY
- YYYY-MM -DD
Now, these formats might look familiar to you. They are the ones we have previously seen when looking at the standard date format used in aviation.
By keeping the format the same across the board, the aviation industry has freed itself of any date confusion.
You won’t find pilots getting their days and months mixed up, and the format always has the month in the middle of it, rather than other formats that put the month before the day.
These flight plans will often also include the time. This will be displayed as HHMM (hours and minutes) and use a 24 hour time rather than adding AM or PM to the end of the time.
By displaying the time in a digital 24-hour clock, a pilot is also unlikely to take off at 6 am when it should have been an evening flight!
Of course, the chances of this happening are incredibly rare, but we bet there’s been a pilot who has misread the time before now!
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, there are two date formats used in aviation, DD/MM/YY and YYYY-MM-DD.
Both of these formats are widely recognized across the globe and help to keep aviation an area that can be universally understood without needing to convert the date into a different format!
You can expect to see the date entered this way on flight plans, displayed in the cockpit, and anywhere else that the date might be used in aviation.
I decided to create this source of knowledge from my own experiences, in the hopes of helping budding pilots to get through their training.
So, if you’re thinking about becoming a pilot or are in the middle of your training, I hope that this website and my knowledge comes of some benefit to you. I’d love to think that my website made your experience a little less stressful and a lot more fun!
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