135 flt ops "weather"

[goodweatherman]

greetings all, just a quick question. can anyone tell me if any of the cargo operations employ their own meteorologists/aviation weather forecasters?, and if so, would you happen to have a point of contact?

thanks for the help...

ps, i am a 12 year aviation weather meteorologist, so if anyone has any weather related questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[lear24]

I doubt any 135 operator has their own weather operation, the one I worked for and our competitors certainly didn't. I think larger airlines like American have their own weather services, when we get a weather package from Sabre (computer system owned by AMR), it often has stuff in there that says "AA Weather Services". I'd try American, if I were you.

 

[100-1/2]

Flight Department Meteorologists

I have seen NetJets (o.k.a. Executive Jet) Columbus, OH post positions for Meteorologists and I believe SWA does or used to hire Meteorologists and you will likely find others. Good luck, this role is often subdued by licensed dispatchers with textual Wx familiarity and often little or no experience in trends or forecast interpretation. You might look at Aerospace Manufacturers, NASA or Media venues for positions requiring your level of experience. Do a search on Monster.com or careerbuilder.com to get a general direction. It is likely some form of crosstraining or multi-role position will be required, but I do know professional positions like this have recently been in demand.

Regards,
100-1/2

 

[HAZ-MAT]

Some of my buddies are dispatchers for 121 and 135 operations and they are the people you contact if you need to know something about the weather, or changing your routing to aviod the weather. So if you also have your dispatchers certificate give some of the 121 carriers a try

 

[skydiva]

Flexjet in Dallas has 2 meterologists on staff, unsure if they are looking at expand but worth looking into.

 

[Timebuilder]

Why not apply to the Weather Channel?

Looks like they have some good working conditions...

 

[goodweatherman]

the weather channel is great, but i love aviation weather, and dealing with safety of flight rather than just doing weather for the sake of doing weather. it feels great to know you keep a flight out of harms way. just last week i forecast for and brief severe icing, prior to the nws sigmet for severe icing, and continued to do so even after it had expired.....2o r 3 hours later, the nws decided to reissue the sigmet. it felt good knowing that i kept flights safe before, during and after that time, ( the cause of the severe icing didn't just go away, it was there before, during and even after the original sigmet expired, so i continued to forecast for the condition). sometimes i wonder what they are thinking. (but all in all i think they do a dam good job, considering).

it suprise's me that they only seem to issue warnings for severe icing once they have had several pireps indicating the condition exists.

multiple freezing levels with rain = severe icing, period. if ur aircraft is in a frozen layer and a warm layer aloft is melting the snow into liquid and its falling on your frozen aircraft surfaces........ICE, and lots of it. (that's just the basics of it, there are a few other things that have to be considered, but all in all that's it).

it seems funny though that many pilots don't want to believe severe weather forecasts until they have been confirmed by some poor slob that wasn't told about the condition, and is now trying to make an emergency landing somewhere.

don't get me wrong, i love pilots, i even fly as student pilot. if it were not for all
of you, i would be out of a job. even the dispatchers are great, (but they can only relay what the nws is putting out, not forecast it in advance).

hopefully one of these days, after retirement, ill get my ratings, and settle down to become a flight instructor somewhere, and maybe even a c208 driver for airnet, or the little purple package pushers.

by the way, any airnet guys out there think the company would benefit from having their own weather dept......


"for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"

 

[Airpiraterob]

weatherperson

im outbased from my company, the other cargo hauler on the field is wiggins. They are the operators for the FedEx caravans in this particular northeast region. theyre weather decisions and tracking is done through the wiggins office by FedEx themselves. so i believe your only hope really is to find UPS and FedEx or a large airline itself and try to work for them in that mannor.

one way of helping is to be a dispatcher for them <must get ATP written and some other experience>...

now with 135 companies in particular, the weather decisions are made by the pilots alone unless extreme weather uncertainty <read bad freezing rain> is found and then the company home offices will usually prevent any flying whatsoever.

im not saying pilots make bad decisions, its jsut if weve seen it in action live in person inside it, then we kinda know whats going on from that point on when looking at the maps and reports and so on.

so...best bet...find a 121 operator. become a dispatcher and work your way up to a big big major airline or jet operator.

 

[StarChecker]

I think we'd benefit by losing the C-208's.

 

[goodweatherman]

by any chance, do any of you work for fex ex?, would you by chance have a point of contact number for their weather opperations office?

thanks again