“Must read” or highly recommended material for aspiring and early career dispatchers?

W

winterrsolsticee

Active Member
I am scheduled to take my ADX written tomorrow and I start ADX school at the ADA in St. George in October. I’ve got a few months to study and before then so just wanted to ask you current professionals what are some books or study material that will most benefit me to begin learning front and back.
 
ADA is good at getting you through all you need to know. For the purposes of the class (and most questions in interviews) you will be ahead of the curve by just casually learning how to read METARs, TAFs, PIREPS and jeppesen charts.
 
I went to ADA. It’s a great school and they will provide you with everything you need to succeed throughout the 8 weeks.

As far as things to give you an edge I would say getting the ADX written out of the way is as big as it gets. Otherwise I would echo what others said by just learning to read METARs, TAFs and PIREPS. For the purpose of this school in particular I would also just mess around with these two sites. And maybe watch some YouTube videos on how to use them.

Aviation Weather Center

How can the Aviation Weather Center help you? AWC provides comprehensive user-friendly aviation weather information.
aviationweather.gov aviationweather.gov

SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com. SkyVector is a free online flight planner. Flight planning is easy on our large collection of Aeronautical Charts, including Sectional Charts, Approach Plates, IFR Enroute Charts, and Helicopter route charts. Weather data is always current, as are Jet Fuel...
skyvector.com
 
AlternateRequired said:
I went to ADA. It’s a great school and they will provide you with everything you need to succeed throughout the 8 weeks.

As far as things to give you an edge I would say getting the ADX written out of the way is as big as it gets. Otherwise I would echo what others said by just learning to read METARs, TAFs and PIREPS. For the purpose of this school in particular I would also just mess around with these two sites. And maybe watch some YouTube videos on how to use them.

Aviation Weather Center

How can the Aviation Weather Center help you? AWC provides comprehensive user-friendly aviation weather information.
aviationweather.gov aviationweather.gov

SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com. SkyVector is a free online flight planner. Flight planning is easy on our large collection of Aeronautical Charts, including Sectional Charts, Approach Plates, IFR Enroute Charts, and Helicopter route charts. Weather data is always current, as are Jet Fuel...
skyvector.com
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Cool just got done with the ADX today got a 90%👍

So after Dispatch School it’s pretty much just on the job experience/know how that will advance you further in your career? Also since you specifically went to ADA, I saw they can set you up with interviews with Breeze SkyWest and Mesa. Did you end up at one of these guys or elsewhere?
 
I am at ADA right now. What I would recommend you do is as soon as you have your ADX done, tell Rhonda and ask if you can go ahead and get access to the google drive. This is where all the class information is. The biggest thing thats in there, is the recordings for each night of our current class. If you start watching them and going over it, it will give you a solid foundation of things that you need to know. This is what I did. I signed up for ADA shortly after the April class started so I missed that class. But I already had my ADX done so they gave me access to the drive. By watching the recordings from the previous class, I learned so much, and I am nowhere near as lost as I would be had I not reviewed anything before. So just watch the recordings and participate as much as you can on your end. You'll feel so much better once your class actually starts.
 
winterrsolsticee said:
Cool just got done with the ADX today got a 90%👍

So after Dispatch School it’s pretty much just on the job experience/know how that will advance you further in your career? Also since you specifically went to ADA, I saw they can set you up with interviews with Breeze SkyWest and Mesa. Did you end up at one of these guys or elsewhere?
Click to expand...
They are "partnered" with skywest pretty strongly. the people who interviewed me came to the school and talked with us about dispatching, and offered job shadowing opportunities as well. If there is a hiring window, talk to the teachers at the school and they will get you an interview (assuming you didnt bomb the basic pre-screening questions). When it comes to hiring, it *seems* as though ADA students are first in line. some students in my class got the job for the *next* round of hirings instead of starting that month, take that to mean what you will, im not sure.

As mentioned in previous posts just do those things, get good at them, and be personable for every interaction. dont be afraid to annoy the teachers of the class with as many questions as you can think of, you are paying them for this(not that they mind much). one things that we learned but i feel wasnt drilled into us hard enough were those jeppesen charts, learn every piece of info on them and why stuff like RVR is important and you are ahead of the game.
 
EIN29 said:
They are "partnered" with skywest pretty strongly. the people who interviewed me came to the school and talked with us about dispatching, and offered job shadowing opportunities as well. If there is a hiring window, talk to the teachers at the school and they will get you an interview (assuming you didnt bomb the basic pre-screening questions). When it comes to hiring, it *seems* as though ADA students are first in line. some students in my class got the job for the *next* round of hirings instead of starting that month, take that to mean what you will, im not sure.

As mentioned in previous posts just do those things, get good at them, and be personable for every interaction. dont be afraid to annoy the teachers of the class with as many questions as you can think of, you are paying them for this(not that they mind much). one things that we learned but i feel wasnt drilled into us hard enough were those jeppesen charts, learn every piece of info on them and why stuff like RVR is important and you are ahead of the game.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I was hoping to hear that their ties with SkyWest are particularly strong as that’s where I’d like to get my regional experience. Hopefully with both Alaska and United hiring they will have some openings for my class.
 
I highly recommend Everything Explained for the Professional Pilot. I believe it is now up to the 14th edition. This book does an excellent job helping you understand certain topics.

Think Like a Pro Flight Dispatcher - By Arman Rezaee (He works for AA) This book will help you more so after school and when interviewing for jobs, especially in the scenario based situations of the interview and overall dispatching.

You will be spending quite a bit of time in the FAR / AIM book in class more than likely and going over the 121 regs. Get those little sticky post it tabs and some highlighters and start highlighting......121.461 - 121.467 / 121.591 - 121.667. Duty and rest requirements, legal to launch, alternate requirements etc. C055 derived mins, exemptions 17347 (regionals) / 20108 (mains) / 15466. Drift down requirements (Method 1 vs Method 2). Get used to reading TAFs and NOTAMs and periodically look around where there is bad weather that day and see what the trends are. Hop on youtube and type in any of these topics as there are a lot of videos that explain these things. It will really help you when you get to class and get a jump start in ultimately preparing for your technical with the FAA examiner. Best of Luck!!!
 
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