Dispatchers...

Adam Unregistered

Do we have any dispatchers here yet? I work with a guy that got his certificate, but obviously doesn't use it because he is a controller.

illogical Junior Member orlando

i dispatched for about 14 months waiting to get picked up..

BigBOSS Gotta Keep 'em Seperated! Austin, TX

What exactly is a Dispatcher?

aviator Junior Member

I am a manager of dispatch (SOC) for a major.

ShyFlyGuy Rookie TUL

Current dispatcher... for about the next 3 weeks till I get to OKC. 2 years with Piedmont Dash 8's on the East Coast. About 1.5yrs with Omni Air Intl DC10's & 757's worldwide (literally!).

Dispatchers are the reason airline pilots have a route to fly and weather so they know what is going on. We basically compile the flight plan, route, and weather information with winds aloft for fuel burns, and reserves to produce a shitload of paperwork known as a flight plan. We then file it for them, and hope they can get the plane out so they can engage the autopilot! It's really a thankless job that's not well known in the industry, but the certificate is good for life. You get jumpseat privileges with 121 carriers, and still get to sleep at home in your bed every night. It's sadly one of the most underpaid jobs in the airline industry (save FDX & UPS), as you share responsibility with the crew for proper flight planning and flight following. The crew gets to worry about just their aircraft while you have many (I've worked up to 18 at once before), and you're lucky if you get 1/3 of what 1 captain is making. It really takes a special kind of person to enjoy dispatch, either the route planning (PITA in Europe), or the adrenaline rush of everything going wrong at once with multiple aircraft. Check out Sheffield.com for more information, the license is basically an ATP rating without a pilot license.

aviator Junior Member

For the dispatchers working day shift, they work up to 65 releases depending on which region of the U.S they are working. The average for the day shift dispatchers is around 60 releases. At any given time you will have about 20 flights in the air.

lil_duval02 Newcomer ohio

So is anyone actually hiring dispatchers, besides Republic?? Omni?

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

dispatchers also call the tower cab every 30 minutes when it's snowing, just to annoy me. one of these days i'm just gonna tell them it's snowing everywhere except the runway. or better yet just tell them braking action is nil.

aviator Junior Member

Get the airport to get a web page up that keeps the field conditions updated like alot of the airports do. That is the easiest way for us to get the latest MU values and field conditions. We will usually call the cab get to get a braking action report if we have a flight inbound and we see that an aircraft just landed or if port ops isn't answering their phone.

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

sorry. i know how important it is for the dispatchers to get up-to-date and accurate information. i just don't think the tower is the one to call to get it. in the contract tower world u are often the only controller on duty. it is a distraction beyond belief when u get up to 5 calls an hour for the latest information.

the funny thing is the airport uses a vericom device instead of MU values. so everytime i pass on the numbers i'm sure to tell them that it is NOT mu. they always ask, "what the heck is vericom". honestly i don't know. but i do know the numbers are not the same as MU so don't use the MU chart. you'll get better readings than it is.