Question about dispatch eligibility

Box hauler

Box hauler

Well-Known Member
I have a question and would like too see if someone here could help me find an answer.
My brother loves aviation but he was paralyzed a few years ago from the waist down and I have been trying to help him to find something that he could do in aviation. Is it possible to do dispatch with a condition like that or are there medical/physical implications that would prevent this? If so are there any other jobs in aviation that might be a good idea to look into? Thanks for any info
 
Box hauler said:
I have a question and would like too see if someone here could help me find an answer.
My brother loves aviation but he was paralyzed a few years ago from the waist down and I have been trying to help him to find something that he could do in aviation. Is it possible to do dispatch with a condition like that or are there medical/physical implications that would prevent this? If so are there any other jobs in aviation that might be a good idea to look into? Thanks for any info
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While paralysis from the waist down wouldn't be a disqualifying condition for flight following alone, for a 121 Dispatch position the law requires that Dispatchers perform 5 hours of familiarization in the cockpit Jumpseat. I'm not familiar with a specific regulation prohibiting it but I'm certain that a disability like that would prevent your brother from occupying a cockpit Jumpseat and, by extension, would prevent him from being a 121 Dispatcher. This wouldn't exclude him from 135 positions, necessarily, but Dispatching may not be the best route if one would be limited to 135 Ops.

That's truly unfortunate and I'm sorry to hear about your Brother and his disability. There are a number of pilot programs that are tailored to disabled students but none of them really lead into a line of work, per se.
 
The job itself I don't think there would be any issues. However, as a dispatcher you are required to cock-pit jump seat once a year. Since you are technically part of the crew, not sure how if you needed to help the crew, or evacuate the aircraft that would work, if paralyzed.
 
BoilerOps said:
While paralysis from the waist down wouldn't be a disqualifying condition for flight following alone, for a 121 Dispatch position the law requires that Dispatchers perform 5 hours of familiarization in the cockpit Jumpseat. I'm not familiar with a specific regulation prohibiting it but I'm certain that a disability like that would prevent your brother from occupying a cockpit Jumpseat and, by extension, would prevent him from being a 121 Dispatcher. This wouldn't exclude him from 135 positions, necessarily, but Dispatching may not be the best route if one would be limited to 135 Ops.

That's truly unfortunate and I'm sorry to hear about your Brother and his disability. There are a number of pilot programs that are tailored to disabled students but none of them really lead into a line of work, per se.
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Actually, we have a guy at my shop who has a disability and uses crutches. We petition the FAA to allow this individual to do his FAM ride in the SIM every year. That still does require having to go up/down stairs, so as long as your brother can do that with assistive devices, than he can dispatch. Unfortunately, if he is wheelchair bound, there is not really any way a company can provide reasonable accommodation to meet his jump seating requirements.
 
Your brother might be just fine. The annual FAA required cockpit familiarization can be completed in a simulator. I've done it myself and there were no stairs to the sim I was in. It had a retractable walkway. Its possible.
 
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Thank you all for the information. Its nice to be able to ask these odd questions to a community who knows about the industry.
 
All Sims I've encountered are handicapped accessible, in a sorts. That is to say that you can get to it on a wheelchair but it may or my not be accommodating from there. That being said, an otherwise able bodied paraplegic should have little trouble getting himself situated with a little assistance.

Certainly I can see a scenario whereby he can petition for a variance of some sort to accommodate his condition. Worth having the conversation before abandoning it as an option.

Of course the other option that someone else mentioned certainly is another option, that being a 135 op, which doesn't hold the jump seating requirement.
 
I am at a major, and there was a wheelchair-bound dispatcher in my new hire class many years back. He was very good at his job also, and he didn't have 100% use of his upper body either (although he could type just fine.) He had worked at a regional prior to getting the call at a major. As long as your brother can use a computer and type, he should have no problem doing this job. As many people have mentioned, using the sim to comply with the operational familiarization/jumpseat requirement is a completely valid option in his case. Normally you cannot do that every year, but the FAA is quite willing to grant a waiver if someone can't use the regular jumpseat because of a physical condition.
 
I also wrote a petition for an FAA exemption for my small little carrier that would allow the times in the pre- and post- brief times to count when you're observing a sim under an AQP program. Which would mean instead of technically having to observe 2 sims to get the 5 hours (since sims are 4 hours long usually), you can observe the pre and post brief in addition to the sim, and get legal that way.

From my contact at A4A, it has been approved, but is still weaseling its way thru the FAA HQ morass, we should see it probably after the new year. Since it sets a precedent, it took forever to get thru the FAA HQ hoops. I hear from A4A that there was a slight change to the language (what I dont know, but my guess a reporting requirement to our POI/PDI) before we see it.

Reading the petition again, I'm not overly happy on how I worded certain things, but hey, if it gets approved.

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FAA-2014-0275

Happy Festivus
 
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