Technical question about presence of daylight flying west!
 

Hello everyone! I am new to this forum and I hope this is posted in the right area. If not please forgive me.

I am travelling to Beijing China. I am leaving San Francisco Airport at 11:00 AM and arriving in Beijing at 3:15 PM.

During my flight, will there always be light outside, or will there be an opportunity of darkness.

Sorry for my dumb question, I am just kinda confused with the whole time difference. I am going to need to sleep and I am worried it will be sunny the whole time.

Thanks.

Technical Question!
 

You'll be traveling West with the sun- so over the course of your flight it will look like it goes from 11am to 3:15pm.. Even though your flight will be much longer than 4h15m.

But I wouldn't worry- generally the cabins are darkened and you get a good chance to sleep..

Welcome. Good question!

What time of year are you flying?

If flying during the winter months I suspect you will be far enough North that you may encounter some measure of darkness. In mid-summer? Forget it.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly who will either validate my hypothesis or tell me I as as wrong as two left shoes.

http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=sfo-PEK&M...b:disc7%2b%25U

Welcome to FT, I'm guessing that you are flying UA non-stop, probably on a 747-400 wide body, flying time of 12 hours 15 minutes for a distance of 5,914 miles as calculated by UA. The other carrier flying non-stop to PEK is CA (Air China) also using 747 (equipments previously flown on JFK-PEK routes since replaced by much newer 777's) Lunch is served on this route in the main cabin (economy) once it's up at its initial cruising atitutde, perhaps 1.5 hour into the flight after/with a beverage service - and shortly, thereafter, overhead lights in the cabin will be dimmed, as some pax do want to rest/sleep (ha ha, LOL - not really, but ...)

Pax sitting by the windows are asked to pull down the shades and use the individual reading light above them to read. Not knowing the time of the year you are flying, it's hard to say how many hours of outside darkness you will get over this route. It sounded like you haven't flow much - here are some suggestions to help you be a bit more comfortable en route: bring the following with you: a firm travel sized pillow for the lower back / act as seat cushion, a set of (inexpensive ones from Sony will do) noise-cancelling headphone to listen to IFE and/or your own iPod or MP3 player, and a pair of eye shades to block out cabin lights (in case your seatmate or neighbor decided to stay awake & keep the light on for the duration of the flight.)

Bonus (extra) tips: the meal portion sized served will be relatively small and UA might or might not serve a pre-arrival breakfast/snack/cold sandwich (used to but haven't been on this route in a long while and not on UA for sure) - so bring some personal/favorite snacks like crackers/chips/trail mixes/energy bar/cookies, etc. (or even instant cup-a-noodles, ask the FA to fill it with hot water) so that you will not be hungry before landing in PEK.

As for the time zone difference, you should be familiar with/learn to understand the world clock - when you flight depart out of SFO at 11 in the morning, it's late night/early morning in PEK, and when you arrive PEK at 3 PM - it's late night/predawn back in SFO. Those of us who fly often deal with this all the time with our body clock, known as jet-lag (Google it) - so you really should eat whatever lunch is served, and try to sleep for at least a few hours as it's the overnight hours already in Peking - or at least close your eyes with the help of shades & ear-plugs, until it's close to landing time. It's not going to be easy if you are just starting out to join the FT crowd but you will learn the ropes, sooner or later .... Make the best & most out of it (so glad that I no longer live out of the suitcase & carry-ons :D )

Someone posted this on another thread and I find it very useful:

http://www.sunflight.net

Good advice, except that if you sleep/rest until close to landing, you will have been resting for 10 hours and resting during daytime in your destination. Best for me to get over jetlag is to start adjusting to my destination time zone even before I board the flight. So for me, I would have the meal then rest for about 5 hours. Then the last 5 hours of the flight I would fight hard to stay awake. The reading light is good, but I find that natural light also really helps, thus I try to keep the window open at least slightly (also helps with reading since when the cabin is darkened, my one reading light is not enough for me to really read!). Stay awake too at your destination at least until early evening if not a bit later. Your body will thank you.

That's a great little tool

Second this. While I've never done SFO-PEK I have done SFO-PVG many times. Sunset often catches us before we land but most of the flight is always in daylight.

We usually go a bit south of the route shown we have once gone well north of it--definitely above the arctic circle. Far enough into winter that would have meant the sun setting in the south during the flight.

Wow. All I can really say is wow, and thank you very much.

I am a member on many forums on the internet from information technology to honda 3 wheelers, and all I can say is this forum is really got it going.

I really appreciate everyone's detailed response. I got warm feeling reading Letitride3c reply. Such great information on how and what to do during the flight.

And I know that everyone was asking what time of the year. I am flying this mid-June.

Thanks again everyone for all of the replys, greatly appreciated.

I have another question that I will post shortly. Thanks.

I find this advice to be absolutely key..

The same proven 3 steps program & diet plan that I've used are detailed in the book "Overcoming Jet Lag" developed by Dr. Charles Ehret & written by Lynne Waller Scanlon in this paperback, which I paid $2.95 or so for back in the 1980's - almost 30 years ago. http://www.people.com/people/archive...087705,00.html - available via Google Books or Amazon - http://www.thecureforjetlag.com (most recently revised in 2008)

Back in those days, it was the good old Sony CD player & headphone, extra batteries and a good book or two, plus assorted magazines & newspapers in the cabin, eye shades & ear plugs - personal IFE was unheard of, with the overhead tube and then, the VCR tapes came along.

As for a mid-June flight SFO-PEK, depending on prevailing wind & the jet stream, as others said, you will not get much complete darkness from the outside - definitely bring sunglasses and/or eye shades to go along with ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones to drown out noises.