Added: 11/16/2005 |
There are many aircraft jobs. The airports and airline companies do need many people to make the planes fly and to make the whole aircraft communication system work. What are these jobs? These are pilot jobs, cabin crew jobs, all kinds of aircraft engineer jobs, mechanic jobs, customer service jobs and so on and on. To describe each one of them would take a deal of time. Each aircraft job requires some skills and knowledge, gaining the profession you'll have to pass through suitable training and get your certificate.
But one of all the aircraft job has something special about it. This is not about being a pilot - it's a whole story too, yet we're talking about something different - an aircraft job of a dispatcher.
Do we really know who are these people, though of course we think we know.
Sometimes this aircraft job is called a flight follower, and this is not quite correct. Yes, these two jobs are very similar. Both flight follower and airline dispatchers do the same thing. They plan the flight, they get the weather forecast and analyze it, they get it all documented, they do follow the flight and control it. But the major difference is that an aircraft job of an airline dispatcher requires a certificate. With that certificate dispatchers do get officially in charge of a flight and share the responsibility equally with the pilot.
How do the people of this aircraft job spend their working day? Keeping busy. It all starts with checking weather forecasts in the region they are assigned too, though of course they dispose the full information about the weather in the whole country. And they not only look through these forecast but analyze them, take into special consideration the spots where the situation might be growing worse or rapidly changing.
Than they start to work on the flight plans, while permanently keeping eye on the plane that are already in the air. What do these plans require? Once again the fully weather information in the departure airport area, whether the conditions are above the necessary minimums so that the plane can take off, what's the weather in the landing area. Plus a dispatcher has to list all the alternate variants.
Then, let's see what else has to be in that flying plan. A dispatcher settles the appropriate altitude of light, the route, the fuel and so on. And than calculates the flight. Thanks God, people of this aircraft job aren't supposed to make all the calculations on paper, because this would probably take an eternity. There are special computer problems that help them with this staff, yet they have to make sure that all the calculations are done right.
Yes, and they keep planning, checking and calculating while monitoring the flights. And we all know that things aren't always going smooth there. A dispatcher stays in touch with the plane crew, whether the situation with the weather in the region is growing worse or anything else is going not the way it's supposed to a dispatcher has to check the area for alternate landing airports, make other responsible decisions.
So one can see that those who choose this aircraft job are almost heroes or at list workaholics and very firm people. But probably you liked the description and wanted to pass through some aircraft dispatcher training? Well the doors of the airline dispatcher schools are open, come and get your certificate. Or don't - you can still become a flight follower.
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