I had a GOC person, very nice person, on my JS this morning. They said they are going to hire 4 more dispatchers in January. They also said the USPS was adding enough freight to pull airplanes out of the desert.

They gave some examples of times when they had to extend crews, and said they were just following orders from higher up and had no input. They were the just the messenger, so don't get mad at them when they give you the bad news.

It was a positive experience to have them on my JS, and I welcome them any time.

I honestly think, at least this person, tried to do a good job for us.

This person did my flight plan for the leg they were on, and I didn't need to add fuel, because of their experience level. I told them I appreciated that.

 

On my last trip to the Apple Store in Germantown ...

Approximately 20 minutes into my "Genius Bar" appointment the Genius asked if I was a FedEx pilot? I inquired if we all looked alike? He said, "no ... all of you guys have this eGrid thing taped to your computers."

Maybe Baja has an Apple computer?

 

I know some people who save their egrid as a PDF/JPEG and open it up when they want to enter it. If I did that I would have it open up as a default tab on my browser so i could easily access it when I logged in. I am not sure if I do that because I do not know if it violates company rules.

 

The original eGrid mandates: OK on a password protected PDA/phone, but should be encrypted on a laptop.
So having it in you favorite PDF or JPEG viewer should be completely within company rules.
It is a way bigger foul to print out and tape in plain view on something you carry.
Besides looking quite silly.

FxCal stores and presents eGrid easily from Quicklinks. Even easier on on the upcoming version for the 6s force touch.

 

HIFLYR +10 Bingo Shack BZ Told it as it is totally agree good post


Planefan82

How can manning be correct if you do not have time to handle your flights if one has a problem during our inbound and outbound?

Why do you have shift changes during our launches in the afternoon?
Phones should not go unanswered when calling your dispatcher, if you do not answer it should roll over to someone else.

We should be making minor changes to the fuel based on experience not because you flight planned us Route1 up a squall line like I had a few months back.

Other day I called to change my alternate because it was barley legal vis wise and guy said we are having shift change need to call back. I said ok but we will be late going to aircraft, he somehow managed to come to the phone.

 

I had the same experience last month. Super guy who gave and asked for a lot of good input on how the whole process works. I really wish we had more direct informal interaction with GOC and CRS. Despite everything, we really are on the same team.
I also heard the same rumors about USPS stuff. A significant bump in day flying requirements.

 

I have seen a noticeable shift in how GOC responds to us over the years. For the most part, I feel that they are very helpful and responsive. Anything I ask for, sometimes I get more than what I actually want. Every now and then they miss something, but I'm generally checking everything out anyways, and when I let them know--no problem. Sometimes I'm more cautious than they are, and other times it's the reverse. But overall I've been very happy with the response I get.

However, talk to me next month when it's really busy and the weather goes to crap, and it might be an entirely different story.

 

Nightflyer,

I too have had pleasant & educational experiences (I hope for both of us) with GOC folks on our cockpit jumpseat. I think it should be required much more often! I generally find their support satisfactory, I've almost never had problems getting extra fuel when I requested it.

But ... I "think" your post says;

- The dispatcher did a really good job on your paperwork for a flight they would be riding on! Shouldn't we be able to say that for every flight, not just flights when I can confront them face to face and ask what in the "heck" they were thinking? Flights when they have some skin in the game and they don't want to be worried about running out of fuel and diverting (they might get home late for dinner!).

- They are hiring more dispatchers in January. Why wouldn't they hire them to be available for our VERY busy peak season? Does that mean that they are short of dispatchers now (and maybe our paperwork isn't receiving the attention it should be)?

- They're bringing more aircraft online. More USPS business might be good job security. Does that mean we don't have enough pilots, dispatchers or airplanes? Who's running this operation?

- The "dispatcher is just the messenger"? Or ... the entire operation isn't properly manned and, as a result, the dispatcher gets to give us the good news? My family plans for the weekend, on my days off, probably aren't as important as manning the airline correctly!*?

During one of my daytime flights from Hartford to Memphis we had a dispatcher on the jumpseat. VERY bad weather was closing in on our departure airport (a MAJOR cold front from Canada to Central Virginia), we had no APU. Concerned a might need to fly all the way to ORF to get around the weather I added a significant amount of extra fuel. When I called Clearance Delivery for our clearance they told me, due to the impending weather, there was a STOP ON ALL BOSTON CENTER DEPARTURES (why hadn't the dispatcher informed me of that?). A few minutes later Clearance Delivery called and asked if we had enough fuel to accept a clearance via ORF (Sometimes I amaze myself )? He issued us that clearance and during taxi out asked if we could accept the shorter runway to expedite our departure ... we did!

It didn't appear to me that ANY of those "hiccups" were ever on the MEM dispatchers "radar"! Why not? They used to call it "Flight Monitoring"? When we finally arrived in MEM (now later than the original schedule) there were now arrival delays.

They could NEVER teach a dispatcher all the lessons learned that day in a classroom! Good job Capt. Mayday!*?

 

Just as I thought.... another fair weather friend.

 

Late into the thread, apologies....

Flying from the NE to MEM and seeing the front before going to the plane, we entered a conversation with GOC and asked for an alternate. The dispatcher tried to give us LIT, which would have had us fly through the threatening front (simple solution for him trumped reality, I guess). We got an alternate that opened our options window wider than the typical "one approach to a full stop" logic mandated by Fuel Sense. We landed at the end of the "weather window" that slammed MEM early in July and caused 71 diverts. Logged 2 hours of block time in MEM with the engines shut down and brakes set....

I have been told by a GOC acquaintance that two days after the event, some VERY SENIOR management paid a visit to GOC and attempted to reacquaint Dispatch and Weather supervisors with the concept that Fuel Sense is fine in clear and a million, but the realities of weather patterns trump Fuel Sense every time. Since the meeting was held in a conference room rather than a sealed room, much of the "conversation" was able to be heard. My source told me that the supervisors were told that the night in question had caused more expenses than all of the fuel saved since the beginning of Fuel Sense.

A week or two after the 71 divert night, another weather pattern with similar characteristics was out there. Again flying from the NE into MEM, when our flight plan dropped, we had over an hour of extra fuel on board due to "Weather considerations." The message had gotten through! The weather didn't develop with the extreme nature of the 71 divert night, but many flights were being sent via various creative routes to avoid the weather. Got to MEM a bit later than scheduled, but got there and was comfortable with the extra fuel pad.

Another point that I saw in the thread was a concept of "We are the crew, in the fight and you are sitting at a desk" argument. Back in the day, the Capt was king and fuel uplifts required notifying GOC of the uplift amount. With Flag status, we are now "co-dispatched" which requires that GOC and the Capt consult on planned changes. Yes, the Capt is still the king of the flight and doesn't have to turn a wheel if not comfortable, but GOC must be included in the decision process now.