What's the dumbest thing a crew has ever asked or requested?

[SSDD]

I think that the uber egos here don't all belong to the pilots. How often does an emergency arise that the dispatcher becomes aware before the pilot, AND THEN, the dispatcher can't get a hold of the flight?

In almost 25 years of professional flying that has never happened to me or anyone else I know!

That's like the private pilot sitting in the back of the airplane hoping that the pilots get food poisoning or something like that so he can save the day.

I'm not minimizing the role of the dispatcher in commercial operations. We are all part of the team and should all work together, but let's not go crazy.

 

[RJAA]

I think that the uber egos here don't all belong to the pilots. How often does an emergency arise that the dispatcher becomes aware before the pilot, AND THEN, the dispatcher can't get a hold of the flight?

In almost 25 years of professional flying that has never happened to me or anyone else I know!

How often? Hopefully never, but you are missing the point, your dispatcher is there to declare emergency for you if/when you are unable to declare one for yourself. God forbid, during hijack situations when you can't contact the ATC or just can't reach for that transponder, you have another way of reaching someone on the ground, or maybe late at night, if no one can confirm you have landed in GTR or BQK or other places where you are below radar contact and the tower is closed and nobody has put "on and in" times, and not quite sure where you are, that's when the dispatcher would ring all the bells and whistles.

 

[SSDD]

You only quote part of what I posted!!!

I get the point. You didn't quote the part where I wrote that we're all part of a team, we each have our responsibilities, and should work together.

But see you only take the part of the job that makes you seem more important. No need.

BTW at one of the outfits I worked at, we had a cleaner who was responsible for calling the sheriff if any of the airplanes we not accounted for. That didn't make him a dispatcher!

 

[ShutupandFly]

I think that the uber egos here don't all belong to the pilots. How often does an emergency arise that the dispatcher becomes aware before the pilot, AND THEN, the dispatcher can't get a hold of the flight?

In almost 25 years of professional flying that has never happened to me or anyone else I know!

That's like the private pilot sitting in the back of the airplane hoping that the pilots get food poisoning or something like that so he can save the day.

I'm not minimizing the role of the dispatcher in commercial operations. We are all part of the team and should all work together, but let's not go crazy.

I have to take issue with your pvt pilot comment. I do not hope that day ever comes.

 

[SSDD]

I have to take issue with your pvt pilot comment. I do not hope that day ever comes.

I saw a poll a while back that made that the number one fantasy among begining aviators.

 

[ShutupandFly]

Maybe you missed my point. I hope I am never in a position as a dispatcher to have to declare an emergency for a flight.

 

[SSDD]

Got it.

 

[WarnerNo13]

You only quote part of what I posted!!!

I get the point. You didn't quote the part where I wrote that we're all part of a team, we each have our responsibilities, and should work together.

But see you only take the part of the job that makes you seem more important. No need.

BTW at one of the outfits I worked at, we had a cleaner who was responsible for calling the sheriff if any of the airplanes we not accounted for. That didn't make him a dispatcher!

The fact that the cleaner does not have a legal responsibility for the whereabouts of the aircraft is what doesn't make him a dispatcher. By being licensed dispatchers we have JOINT authority with the flight crew and the authority to declare an emergency when deemed necessary. We are here to make sure your plane is where it needs to be when it needs to be there, and we have to answer for not just your flight, but hundreds of flights a day. We are no more or less important than you as pilots. We take our responsibilites very seriously (most of us) and we are not just here to push pencils. Take some time to get to know the workings of being a dispatcher. Take a day off and learn something. Sit with a dispatcher and watch real life the juggling of responsibilities that go on, on a daily basis. We are required to sit in your cockpit and observe why you do what you do. Unfortunately the same is not required of you and it should be.

 

[CA1900]

We are no more or less important than you as pilots.

Uhhh... no. Let's say one of us drops dead in the middle of the afternoon while the flight is in the air. Honestly, you're telling me that you believe losing a dispatcher will have as much of an impact on the safety of a flight as losing a pilot? Come on.

You fulfill an important function, and while you're jointly responsible for the flight, you're not the one in charge of it. That's the nature of your job.

 

[SSDD]

WE ARE NO MORE OR LESS IMPORTAMT THAN YOU PILOTS

Which is exactly the point that I am making!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its just that some of you are hung up on this authority to declare an emergency thing!