Meeting a Flight Dispatcher

Aviation Academy in Mumbai

This week I had the privilege of listening to a flight dispatcher speak in my Intro to Aerospace class. Ryan Engel graduated from MTSU in 2016 and now works for Republic Airlines, a regional airline; though, as Ryan explained, Republic Airlines does not consider itself a regional carrier since they fly outside of the United States. Listening to Ryan was helpful in understanding the behinds the scenes work of Airlines. He explained that the primary purpose of his job is to do preflight planning and monitor weather conditions to ensure safety and efficiency. One of the intriguing aspects of Ryan’s job is the fact that, as he explained, each day is different. I think this is a definite draw to becoming a crew scheduler.

            Another interesting point that Ryan made is the fact that his job consists largely of judgment calls. Ryan illustrated this point by explaining how he has at times has had to reject ATC commands and guide pilots in a different way in order to comply with regulations and meet safety standards. An example of this could be forcing pilots to take a longer route opposed to a shorter route in order to avoid landing heavy. This was something I have never heard of and was quite surprising.

            My favorite part of Ryan’s presentation is the way in which he summarized the focus of his job- “meeting others halfway”. I thought this was a well-said way of describing his responsibility. One area which highlights Ryan’s words is in determining how much fuel is needed for a flight- some pilots want the fuel topped off while others want as little as possible. Ryan must meet these demands halfway and make a happy medium between safety and efficiency. Being able to listen to Ryan this week was a beneficial and unique experience.