Ops Man
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. As far as obtaining a FAA Flight Dispatcher certificate goes, you have several options.
Option 1.Take a month and a half out of your busy schedule and attend a 6-week (200 hours) FAA certified course at any number of schools or universities across the US. They cost around $3500, plus lodging, food, and transportation, so it's an expensive proposal even for those not travelling from abroad. However, the fees for the FAA written (ADX), practical, and oral are included.
Option 2. Some schools (Flight Safety International & Sierra Academy) offer reduced length courses for those with experience. FSI will reduce to 3 weeks for airline pilots.
Option 3. I'm taking this route. Several schools offer 2-week accelerated programs of 100 hours (M-F, 10 hours a day!) Some of these are little more than prep for FAA exams while others adhere strictly to the FAA required 100 classroom hours of instruction. In either case, you must have completed the ADX (minimum 70% pass) prior to attending the course. This can be done at any number of computer facilities across the world but the nearest ones to you are:
(LaserGrade test)
American Aviation Services LTD.
SE 15 Gloucestershire Airport
Gloucestershire 01452-857757 / FAX 01452-714747
Weekly Schedule: 8:30am-8pm Mon Wed Thu Fri, 8:30am-10pm Tue, 9am-5pm Sat, 9am-11pm Sun
Or
(Sylvan test)
Sylvan Prometric
1st Floor, Sovereign House
26-30 London Road
Twickenham,
TW1 3RW
0181-607-9090
Prior to taking the class, you will need to study. There are 1513 possible questions from which the computer will randomly select 80. The FAA makes all 1513 questions public knowledge, and so they can be downloaded from their website. Better still, get a book and CD from Gleim Publications (www.gleim.com) and that will help you to study what you need for the ADX. The CD also allows you to practice test in the format you need (LaserGrade, Sylvan, CATS, etc)
In addition to the test, the FAA must be satisfied that your experience qualifies you to take the accelerated class. Check out the following websites,
www.sheffield.com and
www.airlinedispatcher.com for more info. The latter also offers a 5-day course! The cost for these is around $1500 and may or may not include FAA oral & practical exams.
Option 4. Some schools are offering a combination correspondence course (which covers the first four weeks of a six-week course) followed by a two-week course in residence. For one example, check out this site...
http://www.academyeducation.com/aviafrst.html All the reputable schools in the US are listed on the ADF website at
http://www.dispatcher.org/default.html This is an excellent site for gaining an insight into the US dispatch business. Dispatching has really taken off as a career option since the FAA made dispatcher flight release mandatory for all passenger aircraft with more than 10 seats.
Option 5. The EU Option. Deutsche Flugsicherung here in Germany offers 6-week dispatcher courses in English & German. I saw it advertised in Flight International one week but I was unable to find it on their website at
www.dfs.de
I hope this has been of some use to you. If you have any further question, gimme a shout. If you happen to hear of any positions that might be able to utilize my extensive(!) skills, I'd appreciate a lead.
Cheers
Dave Nelson