Interesting if not a slightly stormy thread at times. Interesting because it partly outlines the reasons I left the aviation business to take up a post with a police force as a radio controller, something I've done for 19 years now.
I came into the aviation career back in 1979 when I was very lucky in getting a job, in ops, with Transamerica at Gatwick. They worked the american dispatch/ops system, although as they didn't have any sched services they didn't need a licenced dispatcher. At Gatwick we were responsible for any flight between the NAT and INO areas. We didn't do a full set of flight plans, we did however cover short flights within our area, working out the route and fuel requirements. We gave routing info to Oakland (HQ) for diplomatic clearances and then applied for them. We flight watched the aircraft, passing wx info and reroutes and arranged diversions. When TV srated their JFK/AMS sked service Oakland has licenced dispatchers but at LGW we were very much part of the process.
Mcuh to my regret TV ceased operating in 1986 and I ended up going to AE for 6 months. AE ops, while enjoyable, was not the same kettle of fish and nowhere near as interesting but thats mainly due to the bus service type of operation, rather than the one off charters that TV did, so when I got a chance to join Sussex Poilce for the same sort of money I jumped ship which was about a year before their collaspe.
To be honest I would not leave what I'm doing now, too old to jump back again and I'm still having fun telling policemen where to go and getting away with it.
clicker