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CBJSprague24 posted:Anybody have any experience in crew scheduling/dispatch/flight following? I did a job shadow thing in high school in NetJets' operations department at CMH in 2005 and it opened my eyes to another world in airline/aviation ops, but was a small sample size. I'd just be looking for a general idea as to what work environments were like and if it was a worthwhile place to be in aviation or if it's a "turn and run" type deal. I am a dispatcher for a 121 supplemental carrier right now, and have done some time dispatching at regionals and another 121 supplemental. Feel free to PM me with any questions. And you can add me to the thread list..... figby ADX/COM/ME/INST - ATL
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Apr 18, 2013 17:48
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CBJSprague24 posted:
Good weather days can actually be flat out boring, although there's usually a few flights with interesting operational quirks to keep you on your toes. You learn to appreciate the boring days though, as things can get really intense on bad days, especially when you have a bad weather event take down one or more of your hubs. What I found is that once you get some experience, the bad days get a lot easier to deal with. Scheduled carriers aren't permitted to schedule you for more than 10 hours of work, and it's pretty common to work 4 10-hour days and have 3 off, although some carriers do things differently as far as days off, and a lot of the major airlines have 8 hour shifts, not 10 for dispatchers. Supplemental and charter air carriers don't have this restriction on dispatcher duty times and often do 12 hour shifts, usually 4 on 4 off. There is talk of rule changes going into effect and making supplemental carriers go by the 10 hour dispatch shift limitation, but it probably won't happen for another few years. The shifts you get are pretty much always bid on in the order of seniority, so you can expect a lousy work schedule until you've been with the company a while--how long can vary greatly, but if it's a decent place to work, you're probably talking a few years of bad schedules. This also tends to be a 24/7/365 kinda job, so get ready to work through holidays and possibly have to deal with overnight shifts. I don't use my travel benefits much, but this is much more of personal thing for me. I work with folks who are jetting off across the country/world every other weekend. I'd say dispatch is a great job. I make a comfortable living doing something I really like, and unlike flightcrew, I get to sleep in my own bed every night. If you can deal with the following things, this job may be a really good fit for you: 1) Be prepared to put in a few years at a poorly managed, low paying regional airline for experience. 2) Be okay being really limited as to where you can live-- this means pretty much close by to the city your airline is headquartered in, or you deal with commuting to work. Commuting as a dispatcher is really lovely compared to commuting as flightcrew, but I know people who have made it work. 3) Be interested in dispatching as a career by itself. If you've tended to geek out when it comes to flight planning and weather at your school, I'd say there's a decent shot that you'd be interested in doing this for a living. If you want to use this job as a fallback or stepping stone, there isn't anything wrong with that at all (and I know some really good dispatchers that fit this description), but the folks I see doing this tend to have way less job satisfaction than those of us who like the job for its own sake. Feel free to ask more questions if I didn't cover something else you want to know here.
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May 8, 2013 01:07
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CBJSprague24 posted:Just finished my Master's and am starting to explore job options, so here come some stupid rookie questions. Every operation I have been at pays dispatch better than schedulers, but you pretty much need to have a license to go in externally. If you want to do ramp/scheduling or another entry level position, I have seen carriers occasionally train their own people and pay your costs in training for dispatch licenses, but those are pretty uncommon, and they always seem to require an 18-24 month employment commitment. This is usually in response to not being able to find qualified dispatchers for what the carrier is paying. As far as schedule, dispatch is usually 24-7, but most domestic operations have only a few overnight shifts, compared to the bulk being early morning/afternoon shift starts. 121 domestic and flag dispatchers can't be scheduled for more than 10 hours, and at the regional level 4-on 3-off is pretty standard. Feel free to PM if you have more questions.
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May 22, 2014 18:42
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) from which I could theoretically hop on their flights, but all three are RJ-only (one gets an A319 occasionally if the airline is feeling nice). Is non-revving a nightmare into hubs on 50 or 70 seaters?
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-Blackadder- posted:I'll have to check with him to see if he has that cert. I did look the cert up on faa.gov and they have a list of approved certified programs and the career college that he's thinking of going to is on the list so maybe it's worthwhile afterall. I just saw someone running down career colleges somewhere else so thought they might be pointless. Basically, just make sure he can type at a reasonable speed (like 20-25+wpm), and go back and forth between open windows of a whole mess of programs. There's nothing magical about it, but someone who can't type faster than hunt-and-peck will get their asses handed to them on a dispatch desk at just about any carrier.
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Jul 2, 2014 16:43
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