Looking into Flight Dispatcher!

Hello everyone!

I am new to the forum and just a had a few questions for you. I am going to be ending my contract in the ARMY in a few years and i currently work as a Aviation Operations Specialist. I really do love the job that i do right now but I've served my time and I'm ready to come back to the civilian world. After some research i found that the title for my job right now is Airline/Flight Dispatch. I've been doing some "googling" on it and i am very excited to get started with this Career.

And now for the questions,

1. What are some credible schools to go to? I recently found iFOD and i liked what they had to offer but i have not really gone too far with researching the schools yet. Also i have the Post 9/11 GI Bill and would hate to waste it on a crummy school.

2. What are decent regional airlines to work for after completion of the course?

3. Is the job market still booming for this line of work?

4. Studies- What should i start studying hard on before i jump into the school?

(I may have a few more later)

Thank you for taking the time out to view my post!

perhaps @Krystal can provide you with some answers since she is one of our resident dispatchers.

Hi Eric.

I went to Sheffield School of Aeronautics down in Ft. Lauderdale. They are pretty highly regarded but they are also one of the most expensive. If you choose to go that route, I highly reccommend looking into alternative housing because their student housing for 6 weeks is outrageous ($1700 per person to share a house with 5-6 other people) For the cost of gas to drive my car down from STL to FLL and back and rent a room from a woman who lived 15 mins from the school, I paid less than half of that and had my own, very nice room in a quiet, safe neighborhood AND my own transportation. I went to Sheffield on the reccommendation of a friend. THe curriculum was very thorough, although I dont really care for some of their business practices. (I wont get into it here) I know several people who went through Embry Riddle, IFOD, and UND. Look into your local schools... many universites with Aviation programs also offer DX Certification.

As far as regional airlines, unfortunately it appears to be on a downtick right now. Many of the carriers who are known for "always hiring" are in bankruptcy right. My own airlne is not in trouble at the moment, but we just hired 2 new dispatchers so we dont have any openings. Thats not to say that there arent any part 121 jobs right now, but there my be fewer. It depends on staffing needs.... dispatchers can only handle so many flights on a shift...the airlines have to be adequately staffed. Something you CAN look into, however, is non 121 flight following jobs. These jobs dont require a dispatch license, but having one helps. Many non-scheduled charter ops and FBO's employ "flight coordinators" or "flight followers" who schedule flights, route crews, order maintenance, coordinate ground support, and assit crews in the flight planning process in addition to enroute monitoring. These are a good start for people fresh out of DX school.


As far as studying, one thing I highly reccomend is being prepared for the ADX exam BEFORE you start the cert. class. The ADX is an abbreviated (mutated red-headed bastard stepchild) form of the ATP exam that pilots have to take. It...SUCKS. And only about 1% of it pertains in any way to dispatch! You DO NOT want to be trying to memorize a 500 question bank of irrevelant crap while you are having to learn every CFR, FAR and aeronatucial dictionary term from here to kingdom come. Trust me. As far as anything else, if you dont already have a background in aviation, I highly reccommend reading over the glossary of aeronautical terms in the back of the FAR/AIM or online. It will make the ADX questions less confusing and it will be one thing less you'll need to learn in class. You should brush up on basic weather: definition and characteristics of different fronts, characteristics of a low pressure system vs a high pressure system, cloud types, life cycle of a thunderstorm, definition and types of windshear, types of fog and how they are formed, types of wind, defintion and characteristics of the jet stream etc. Your job will deal LARGELY with weather (where it is, where its going, where it isnt...YET) A good Aviation Weather book will address all of those. The schools usually do a decent job of teaching youu the basics...You earn your dispatching chops on the job.

Good luck with whatever you decide. IDispatch can be a very rewarding career, but just like most other aviation jobs it can be thankless... There are days when the wx is beautiful all over but every plane in your fleet breaks. There are days when the tstorms kicked your butt so hard that you are literally stuck to the desk for 10 hours...not time to even go to the restroom or heat up your dinner .. and by the time you get home, the only thing your brain can process is South park. You'll have days when the stations call you every 3 minutes and your pilots even more often, youre 25 ACARS messages deep, your flight planning software just locked up, and the air conditioner is broken. There will be days when, no matter what you've done or how much thought you put into something, the station, the crew, and management are screaming at you from all directions.

Then there are days when you look up and you realize that you wouldnt trade your career for anything.

Thank you for the response!

Cost will not be an issue for me because my Post 9/11 GI Bill will be paying for the course. Yeah i would most definitely not want to be roomed with a bunch of other people! Not that i am antisocial but you just have to have that time to yourself. Especially if your trying to study. So basically from what i understand is that the schools usually are pretty good no matter where you go.. It just rides on me to pay attention and focus on the course. I actually just found a school in my home town Tucson, AZ called Sonoran Wings Flight Control Academy. Have you ever heard of it? This would be the perfect school for me to go to in regards to location because my wife, daughter, and me can all stay with family and school is only 30min away!

There seems to be a trend there with jobs these past few years. Well, we will have to see whats out there in the next two years! Who know maybe someone will hit the easy button and the world will be a better place or it will go farther down the drain, who know. I'm glad i still have some time left to decide. Speaking of which, I was also debating if i wanted to continue with the Army and stay in the Reserves. Do you think that would make me look a little less attractive to potential employers seeing as i could be placed on active duty orders any moment?

I always wanted to be a weather man when i was a child so it looks like this is pretty close to it haha! Thank you for the information i will certainly have to start studying those acronyms. I am in the Army so acronyms are a second language to me lol! Where is a good source i can get that information on?

Dispatch feels like the career i want. I think about doing it and it puts a smile on my face. Cannot wait to get started. I love being in the military but it just doesn't do it for me anymore. I did my time and now i am ready to move on to a new chapter of my life and being my career. Plus, Dispatching has some of the most awesome benefits!

We ahve lots of guys who are military reserves. My company and my past company were both very accomodating when it came to militarry leave.

Okay great! Well that's a nice weight off my shoulders!

Hey i was looking into starting some online courses in Air Transportation and Meteorology. I found a site called MetEd.com and it offers free courses for Meteorology. Has anyone ever heard of or used it before?

Yes! I have used the Skywarn Spotter course. It has a lot of good info. Have fun with those.