Victor Squawk
Well-Known Member
Hello and please forgive me if a thread like this has already been made. I will gladly read it instead.
I have been interested to become a paper pilot (tongue-in-cheek, don't get mad at me) for a few months now, and slowly learning about the work of an aircraft dispatcher. I talked to some dispatchers online and noticed that they seem to be a varied bunch. Some are very helpful, some are terse. One of them recommended to find a forum (which is why I'm here) and it turned out to be a good idea. I'm excited to find so many different viewpoints and situational wisdom.
One of them also suggested to consider the pilot career, since the dispatch license is supposedly the same training. (I'm not really sure what I am saying here, due to my superficial understanding). However, aside from how cool it is to travel all over and fly a large metal (or composite mat) machine through the skies, to be honest I think I would only be interested in flying privately on a single engine plane in a rural area with fantastic views. It would be for personal novelty rather than a career.
So, I'm guessing that calling a dispatcher a paper pilot will probably piss someone off, but no offense meant, I genuinely like the sound of it. However, this intro is getting too long. I'm mainly interested in the experiential element of working as a dispatcher. I have to say my impression of dispatching work has changed in stages as I learned more. For example, the moment I started looking at the meteorological information related to aviation, I started to understand that a dispatcher "parses" a lot of aviation information to do the job. It also used to sound like they just schedule flights, but now I've gotten a hint that they actually plan the movement through the air itself?
It all sounds very exciting and much more fulfilling than just balancing schedules of a fleet of planes (I've done some fleet management (for cars) and freight haul dispatching, but aircraft dispatching sounds far more enjoyable). I like the idea of working out logistical solutions that no one else can really do. I also have a huge appetite for education and gaining knowledge. It sounds like dispatching pulls together a large interdisciplinary range of information to perform crucial, indispensable work.
That's why I wanted to ask about the sorts of tasks that a dispatcher performs on the job. Aside from the technical stuff, the charts, the regulations, and the meteorology, how would you describe the experience of working in the day-to-day? Am I over-hyping myself for what sounds like a rewarding challenge? Is it actually as dynamic as I'm thinking? Or is it more simple and straightforward? Do you spend more time crunching data and reading charts? Do you feel a lot of job satisfaction in being excellent at efficient planning? I'm highly curious!
Please tell me more!
Zeph
P.S. If anyone dislikes my use of the phrase "paper pilot" to refer to the job, please forgive me; I'm sorry, It's just a joke, and I only mean it towards myself.
I have been interested to become a paper pilot (tongue-in-cheek, don't get mad at me) for a few months now, and slowly learning about the work of an aircraft dispatcher. I talked to some dispatchers online and noticed that they seem to be a varied bunch. Some are very helpful, some are terse. One of them recommended to find a forum (which is why I'm here) and it turned out to be a good idea. I'm excited to find so many different viewpoints and situational wisdom.
One of them also suggested to consider the pilot career, since the dispatch license is supposedly the same training. (I'm not really sure what I am saying here, due to my superficial understanding). However, aside from how cool it is to travel all over and fly a large metal (or composite mat) machine through the skies, to be honest I think I would only be interested in flying privately on a single engine plane in a rural area with fantastic views. It would be for personal novelty rather than a career.
So, I'm guessing that calling a dispatcher a paper pilot will probably piss someone off, but no offense meant, I genuinely like the sound of it. However, this intro is getting too long. I'm mainly interested in the experiential element of working as a dispatcher. I have to say my impression of dispatching work has changed in stages as I learned more. For example, the moment I started looking at the meteorological information related to aviation, I started to understand that a dispatcher "parses" a lot of aviation information to do the job. It also used to sound like they just schedule flights, but now I've gotten a hint that they actually plan the movement through the air itself?
It all sounds very exciting and much more fulfilling than just balancing schedules of a fleet of planes (I've done some fleet management (for cars) and freight haul dispatching, but aircraft dispatching sounds far more enjoyable). I like the idea of working out logistical solutions that no one else can really do. I also have a huge appetite for education and gaining knowledge. It sounds like dispatching pulls together a large interdisciplinary range of information to perform crucial, indispensable work.
That's why I wanted to ask about the sorts of tasks that a dispatcher performs on the job. Aside from the technical stuff, the charts, the regulations, and the meteorology, how would you describe the experience of working in the day-to-day? Am I over-hyping myself for what sounds like a rewarding challenge? Is it actually as dynamic as I'm thinking? Or is it more simple and straightforward? Do you spend more time crunching data and reading charts? Do you feel a lot of job satisfaction in being excellent at efficient planning? I'm highly curious!
Please tell me more!
Zeph
P.S. If anyone dislikes my use of the phrase "paper pilot" to refer to the job, please forgive me; I'm sorry, It's just a joke, and I only mean it towards myself.