ABX AIR is hiring DON'T APPLY

[SKC]

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I wanted to comment on a couple of things.

Dispatching a heavy is not nearly as difficult as dispatching part 121.

First of all, dispatching is NOT a difficult job. There are many things to keep an eye on, but brain surgery it isn't.

An airplane is an airplane is an airplane. Some just have larger numbers involved. Whether it carries 100 or 500 people, it's essentially the same process.

Do you deal with passengers?

A dispatcher doesn't deal with passengers. A dispatcher plans for a specific payload (i.e. amount of boxes/number of people). Boxes, people, it's doesn't matter because your job is handled the same.

Do you deal with ground delay programs?

I'm guessing that would depend upon if you were operating into an airport that had a GDP issued for it.

Do you deal with customer service agents?

Customer service agents, charter customers, tour ops, they all look for the same info. If you give them quality information (i.e. give them updates when you say you will regardless whether good or bad), they won't seem near as bothersome.

Now you two need to put your ****s back in your pants, your rulers back in the desk and get to work.

 

[ss9e]

First of all, dispatching is NOT a difficult job. There are many things to keep an eye on, but brain surgery it isn't.

i beg to differ. i'll give you two different aspects which make dispatching difficult. first, at the regionals the workload is so high that you can barely keep up. it isn't uncommon for regional dispatchers to do up to, if not more than, 100 releases in a 10 hour shift. if all you had to do was releases, this probably wouldn't be a big deal. but when you have 40+ planes in the air that you are responsible for flight following, plus the releases, it gets to be a bit much. i didn't even take into account bad weather, gdps, or other unforeseen issues.

second, at the big carriers with international flights, your flight plans are so complicated and detail oriented that they can take an hour or more to prepare. every region of the world has it's own sets of rules. you have to look at weather and notams not only for departure and arrival, rerelease airports weather and notams, enroute weather, you have to look at all the FIR boundary notams, the crossing track structures, foreign atc agencies, etc. contrary to popular belief among pilots. dispatchers do work hard and you do NEED dispatchers.

 

[Duster41]

Shooter:
The remark I made about years in dispatching was in regards to abdx remark of "dispatching for 10 years and been around". I'm new at this flightinfo site and haven't learned to use the quote box. And for my grammer, I should of post read my comments, but this brainless job of dispatching got me bored with the gdp's in the northeast and reroute arounnd the tropical depression from ATC. I guess I wasn't brain dead enough to do this job.
You're right about having concerns with a runway when landing and weights. Grant it, with heavy's, you don't have as much options concerning using multiple runways. The problem we have is our money is derived from pax loads. And CRJ don't have much leeway when fuel and weights are concerned. At least when dispatching to an airport ,and the winds are a concern, we have at least the opportunity to launch and take a look to see if the runway is legal to land on. If not then hold or divert.

I thought ss9e brought up some interesting comments about this job. Not to mention to hear a Pilot complain about taking an aircraft with a pac deferred, or to deal with a gate agent when you bump pax to add an alternate because Wilmington likes to "now forecast".Another easy part of my job is when a TSRA develops around PIT and LGA, JFK, and BOS basically stops departures because there are "no routes", but you look and going down through DC center is wide open. You reroute through DC center to LDN J134 HNN and arrival to CVG. You think they are good to go. But they sit at the end of the runway for clearance and none comes because Wash Center won't take them because of traffic. You look and see DL, UAL, AA all departing and you have missconnects sitting at the end of the runway just waiting for the phone call "Pilot Time Out". Yeah, Anyone can do this brainless job. Then there is..... I think I ranted long enough.

I guess SKC are one of those dispatchers that dispatch for years and really don't understand what dispatching is all about.

And Shooter please feel free to critique my comments....

 

[abxdx]

I really don't care if people think dispatching is hard or not. My only concern is that Kittyhawk gets on this website and bashes a place he only worked for for 3 months then left with no two week notice(screwing the rest of us). He also found it appropriate to post his resume for other airlines while he was in training here. Oh by the way the only heavy jets you have dispatched are the ones that you dispatched here.

I have no problem with anyone else in the forum, just this guy! I am sure we all work very hard for our paycheck. Some days harder than others.

My only concern is expose Kittyhawk as a fake and a liar. And to let everybody know that ABX is not that bad............................


If there was ever a so called "clown" here it was him!!!

 

[abxdx]

Kittyhawk why don't you fess up to who you really are? How is FWA today?

 

[abxdx]

Another thing Kittyhawk, ABX is part 121 you gimp!!!

Your quote about heavy jets being easy compared to 121 makes no sense at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SKC]

ss9e and Duster..

I'm not advocating getting rid of dispatchers. I'm not slamming the very thing I do. I certainly don't think that I'm the best one out there.

What I was saying is that although it is a task oriented job that many times requires dozens of steps, it's not a difficult thing to do. Let's not confuse high workload with difficulty, but I guess that's just symantics.

I guess SKC are one of those dispatchers that dispatch for years and really don't understand what dispatching is all about.

Or, just maybe, I approach the job with the attitude that I'm just one cog in the wheel of this airline, and that I alone can't make it work. I have to work WITH the arrogant Capt, the frustrated gate agent, the overloaded ATC specialist, the pissed off mgmt person, so I come to work and leave that chip on my shoulder at home. Over the years I've discovered that it's the only way to efficiently do this job.

ss9e, if it's taking more than an hour to complete one scheduled international flight release, something is wrong (unless you're dealing with a primitive flight planning system). If it's a non-sched adhoc flight that's a different deal if you're having to obtain overflight permits at the time of departure. That can actually take some time. The actual planning process is still fairly straight forward.

 

[Duster41]

SKC:
Who says a dispatcher that cares about dispatching needs a chip on his shoulder? I come to work and enjoy what I do. Your right You alone can't make it work, But you could make a difference. I look back at the AA accident in LIT when the dispatcher at anytime could of diverted that flight away from TSRA, but chose not to do anything. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the dispatcher or saying he is a bad dispatcher. What I am saying is we have choices everyday about our flights and how we handle those choices makes a dispatcher. Sometimes you need a little chip on your shoulder to get the job done, sometimes you need to be more diplomatic, but to say that this job is easy and all you need to do is push a few buttons on a keyboard and that's it, is basically ludicrous (like that spelling shooter). Sure I can dispatch in my sleep when the forecast is VRB003KT P6SM SKC. This job isn't physical to say the lease, but mentally it could get to you. Like I said before, it doesn't matter how long you have been dispatching but how you dispatch. For someone to come on this board and basically say anyone, other then being braindead, can easily do this job.

 

[SKC]

I agree with most of what you said, but please show me where I said the "brain dead" could do this job. You won't find it, because it was never said. That's a word that you came up with. Nor did I say it could be done easily. Once again, that's something you created. I said it wasn't brain surgery. There's a massive gap between brain surgery and being brain dead.

 

[Duster41]

I guess it's just symantics

 

[shooter]

Well I have dispatched heavy jets and I will tell you runways dont mean a thing shooter. When you are dispatching to ORD how can you tell what runway they are using if they open and close runways every half hour? That is why as duster said YOU DISPATCH TO A AIRPORT NOT A RUNWAY. Read your FARS it is in there in black and white. Dispatching a heavy is not nearly as difficult as dispatching part 121. Do you deal with passengers? NO Do you deal with Ground delay programs? NO Do you deal with customer service agents? NO All you deal with up there at ABX is putting the fuel on and that is it. You dont deal with what a passenger carrier deals with and plus ILN is only for ABX. Not like Fed-ex and UPS you have to share with passenger carriers. On my next post I can put a quote from the FARS if you would like.
Or better yet ask the man that sits in the office next to the training room I am sure he knows what the FAR regarding dispatching to an airport is rather than a runway. Yeah right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! You really are a bone-head skippy! I'm glad you are not at ABX and feel sorry for your co-workers.

Dispatching a heavy is not nearly a difficult as dispatching part 121

what in the world are you talking about? ABX IS a 121 carrier.

NO Do you deal with ground delay programs? NO All you deal with up there at ABX is putting the fuel on and that is it.

Yeah, your right skippy. We just load the aircraft up fly ILN-ILN and land again. You are the braindead of which others speak.

Do you deal with setting up fuel at out stations or setting up de-ice? Do you re-route aircraft to recover for another station? Do you even know how a Dispatch office works? I doubt it. I said it before, cargo ops are apples to a passenger ops oranges. But I guess you do not know how to read a complete post much less compose anything literate. Go back to fast food and quit giving Dispatchers a bad name.

On my next post I can put a quote from the FARS if you would like.

Go ahead and I will post from the FAR's too. Then maybe, just maybe I can get it through your cro-magnon skull that WE ARE NOT DISPATCHING TO A RUNWAY!

 

[rvsm410]

Dispatch doing there jobs

Just read the latest on the SWA Midway accident, NTSB, Flying Mag.."Les Abend" article, it seems to me that the dispatcher there at SWA should have diverted that flight, especially since he/she talked to the crew enroute 2 times about the landing data.

I have only been at odds 1 time with a crew over a diversion I wanted them to perform, I got some guff from them at the time, but it was later proven by the weather at the ETA that my decesion was the right one.

This is the inherant problem for dispatchers, its our job to keep them safe, and when we do our job 99.999% of the time there is nothing to talk about and the mission was successful, which of course is what we all want.

The unfortunate side is that most people inside the airline, and all the public dont have any appreciation or knowledge what we do as dispatchers, many flight crews have little use for us "according to them", we are just part of the process if you will.

Accidents have mentioned AA/LIT, SWA/MDW etc...these are prime glaring cases where the dispatcher "could have made a difference had a more conservative approach been taken as well as a forceful request to the crews to divert, Of course the PIC could have chosen to over rule the dispatcher under emergency guidelines, not something a crew would normally do.

We will never know how many accidents/ Incidents have been avoided by the work of the dispatcher/ Pilot relationship. JMHO

 

[ss9e]

ss9e, if it's taking more than an hour to complete one scheduled international flight release, something is wrong (unless you're dealing with a primitive flight planning system). If it's a non-sched adhoc flight that's a different deal if you're having to obtain overflight permits at the time of departure. That can actually take some time. The actual planning process is still fairly straight forward.

no, i'm not dealing with a primitive flight planning system. i'm working on jepp. there are a couple of flights that i do regularly that take this long. mem-nrt, kix-mem, hkg-fra, hkg-cdg, hkg-ala all take a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour to prepare daily if done properly. sure, i could not look at fir boundary notams, pacots, freeflows, solar reports(for the polar flights), sigmets, diversion airports weather and notams(for the l888 route in china), or try to find the fastest/most fuel effecient route and just hope that everything works out for the best. i take pride in what i do. i want to give my crews the most accurate and safe release that i can. SKC i don't know where you work or what type of routes you fly. but, if you are doing routes similar to me and it doesn't take you that long, then you are not doing your job properly.

 

[SKC]

ss9e, 30+ mins IS normal for flights such as the ones you mentioned. Earlier in the thread someone mentioned planning for those taking more than an hour, so that's what I was referring to.

I work at a supp carrier that does worldwide flights as well, so I know the laundry list of things to check prior to releasing a flight in those parts of the world.

 

[XShipRider]

Your keen observation skills would otherwise keep me wondering about your ability to determine how you judge other peoples abilities, much less the working conditions and environment of a company after you say you “have been gone for 2 years”.

Inclined to agree with 'shooter' on this one. Though I rarely opine on topic
from time to time, I worked for a frac' a couple of years back. I am always
careful to include a caveat such as "my information is dated" and "things
may have changed since my departure." This allows the reader to delineate
between my very dated knowledge of a particular subject and those more
current from someone else. Sometimes it's nice to know some history behind
a company.