What Are Your Peeves and Problems as a Dispatcher?

TomatoFlames

TomatoFlames

Well-Known Member
What goes on in your job that aggravates you or makes your job more difficult? Maybe something a pilot does, a recurring computer issue, a certain ATC center making your day challenging?

One for me is that I hate it when pilots take directs after I gave them a specific routing for a reason. I also hate when they ACARS me asking if they should take a direct, even though I can see that they already took a direct. Why ask me then? haha
 
When your relief is late and doesn't have donuts!!!!

That is the one thing that needs to be taught in dispatch school.

Dang new hires - have to teach them everything.


Seriously though, not showing up for work on time is my biggest one.
 
Crews asking me a question that is clearly answered somewhere in the briefing packet. Crew: "I can't find waypoint XXXXX on a chart". Me" DId you read NOTAM 1234 for that FIR?" "NO, why?" Me: "Because it tells you all about waypoint XXXXX". "DO you know how many pages this we have to go through?" me" Yes I do.. because I go through 15 separate packets". Crewmember added to "no fly with" list.

TomatoFlames said:
What goes on in your job that aggravates you or makes your job more difficult? Maybe something a pilot does, a recurring computer issue, a certain ATC center making your day challenging?

One for me is that I hate it when pilots take directs after I gave them a specific routing for a reason. I also hate when they ACARS me asking if they should take a direct, even though I can see that they already took a direct. Why ask me then? haha
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Or, after taking the direct 200 miles off plan and into the center of the jetstream, complaining that the winds are worse than forecast on the flight plan and can i find him some better winds. Yes, i found them, the best winds are on the route you were filed on.
 
Our flight planning system doesn't really have a place to put a takeoff alternate next to the departure city on the release, so if I think I am going to need one, I always add the remark "T/O alternate of KXXX, if required." Even when I do this, I often get calls from ops saying "Flight XXX says they need a takeoff alternate." Keep in mind, this isn't in the NOTAMS or anything, it's on the front page of their release. It does make you wonder sometimes....my standard reply is, "Please ask the captain to read the remarks on his release."
 
I find that a lot of times, pilots will throw questions at the dispatcher for the sole purpose of testing you and how you perform and respond. Not always a terrible thing, but I guess it is a confidence ruler on how well their flight plan was prepared.
 
TomatoFlames said:
I find that a lot of times, pilots will throw questions at the dispatcher for the sole purpose of testing you and how you perform and respond. Not always a terrible thing, but I guess it is a confidence ruler on how well their flight plan was prepared.
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When I first started at my present job, I had a Captain flying from Seoul to Anchorage on a 747. He was nitpicking a few details, even asked to speak to my supervisor, who told him that everything could be considered correct.

So the supervisor hands me the phone to finish up the brief and the Captain says "One more thing, our ETP scenario routing flies right across the NOPAC tracks..."

"Well, Captain, it's my understanding that when you need to use your ETPs, it will be necessary to fly well below RVSM airspace."

In my two years at this airline, I've since learned he just doesn't know what he's doing.
 
TomatoFlames said:
I find that a lot of times, pilots will throw questions at the dispatcher for the sole purpose of testing you and how you perform and respond. Not always a terrible thing, but I guess it is a confidence ruler on how well their flight plan was prepared.
Click to expand...

Yeah, at a previous carrier we had one captain who was known to call in and ask questions about the precip along his route - while looking at the weather radar himself. He got called out on it one time and hung up the phone. Of course, in his case, he wasn't doing it to "test" the dispatcher, he was doing it just to be a pain in the ass.
 
TomatoFlames said:
I find that a lot of times, pilots will throw questions at the dispatcher for the sole purpose of testing you and how you perform and respond. Not always a terrible thing, but I guess it is a confidence ruler on how well their flight plan was prepared.
Click to expand...
Either that or talking to the FO is a terrible bore, right? :)

F9DXER said:
When your relief is late and doesn't have donuts!!!!

That is the one thing that needs to be taught in dispatch school.

Dang new hires - have to teach them everything.


Seriously though, not showing up for work on time is my biggest one.
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In the words of our chief instructor, "What do we work for, a freakin' airline?"
manniax said:
No, I prefer to violate the FAR's. Of course I add them.
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I visited SOC the other day; there's a sign there that says "DUMP ALL THE NOTAMS" above the dispatch desk. +100 Internets for the biggest laugh of the morning.

I wish, however, that they could be separated into "useful" (e.g. RW 24L-6R CLOSED WIE UFN) and the annoying or useless (e.g. anything about ADS-B, ever, for non-equipped airplanes...seriously, how many times do we print that NOTAM a day?). "All available information" is great, but "all available, pertinent and useful information" is much more important.
 
We're doing a lot better now, but a few years ago, we have three pages of flight plan and like 20 of NOTAMS. A vast majority non sequitur, nonsensical stuff like you mentioned above.


Sent from my free Obama Phone
 
TomatoFlames said:
One for me is that I hate it when pilots take directs after I gave them a specific routing for a reason. I also hate when they ACARS me asking if they should take a direct, even though I can see that they already took a direct. Why ask me then? haha
Click to expand...
^^ This right here for sure...... I was working at a small A320 airline at the time doing a military charter across the country. Payload critical and right into a 120+ knot jetstream. Built a beautiful next gen (using NRS waypoints) route north and made the numbers work. Plane gets airborne and the Captain sends an ACARS message saying how "cool and unique the route was; I really like it" just as he was requesting a direct route to some VOR 1200+ nautical miles away and right into the jetstream :rolleyes:

I can't remember if that was the flight that ended up making a fuel stop or not. We did that flight for about 4 straight days and I know one did.

Another time (different airline) I had a Captain call up and immediately put ME on hold....... thirty minutes later he called back really upset asking why I had hung up. I proceeded to tell him that I held for about 5 minutes but then needed to pump out 1 or 2 other flight plans while dealing with a lightening strike on another one of my flights which was causing an AOG at some random Air Force base in bumf*** nowhere. Needless to say it went right over his head that he wasn't flying this airlines only airplane :cool:

Fun topic!
 
I really dont have too many gripes but it irks me when pilots wait until 5 minutes before departure to call me and request more fuel. Im in no way stingy with fuel and if you want more, you can give me a justifiable reason as to why you need it, and I dont have to bump people, you get no argument from me. But, seriously guys, you picked that paperwork up an hour ago and you initialized your ACARS half an hour ago...for Friggs Sakes, call me as soon as you think you want more...dont wait until 5 minutes before push to say you want an extra 500 lbs! Because I have to ammend your release. Then I have to call the station and tell them I ammended it so they can call the fuelers back... and you will take a delay. The problem with this is that, 9 times out of 10, the station codes the delay to DISPATCH and I get dragged in for the dispatcher version of a carpet dance to explain why I have a 07C delay for late release ammendment!

The other thing that irks me is the Captain that calls into DX half cocked. Maybe he's having a bad day. Maybe hes tired or angry at scheduling. Maybe the FA dumped coffee down his back or the previous captain stuck him with an open write up...whatever. Calling into DX and launching into a tirade over the phone without even identifying yourself or your flight number is going to get you nowhere and it certainly wont earn you any favors. You wouldnt expect me to behave that way, please show me the same respect.

Also, dispatchers are not machines. We dispatch thousands of flights a year...yes, we do make an occasional minor mistake...the kind that makes you face palm and shake your head. But Just remember, many of us are commuters who sit on a jumpseat a hundred times a year and we've seen you guys make some minor, albeit boneheaded mistakes also. Please keep that in mind.
 
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