Blue Monday and others...
If you are going to work under the US FAR system of dispatcher/pilot joint-responsibilty then you need to hold the FAA Aircraft Dispatchers License. It is a very good qualifcation, BUT, it is not the qualifcation appropriate to European operations that is based on ICAO Doc 7192 - AN/857 D3 Training Manual - Flight Operations Officers/Flight Dispatchers. Further, the FAA license obviously, focuses on US FAR regulations, US aviation weather services which are (with a few exceptions) unique to the contingent United States. That said, there is much subject matter that is common to both FAA and ICAO 7192. My view however, is that 7192 is the much more comprehensive syllabus and offer a deeper level of operations studies.
Those airlines who choose to send their people on the FAA license course, do so largely, as there is little other option and there is large dispatcher training industry available in the States which we lack.
So, if you are looking for an ops qualification for European operators under EU-OPS/EASA, then you must look for a course based on the ICAO 7192 D3, such as the Dublin Institute of Technology, and I believe Bristol Ground School are offering this course in the UK and AVTECH2000 who I believe, now have a 7192 based course.
I have reprinted here the UK CAA CAP 768 (April 2008) Guidance to Operators on the subject.
Responsibilities of Aircraft Crew and other Operating Staff
3.1 In this context the term 'operating staff', as distinct from the crew, means staff having specific duties, in relation to particular flights, which fall within the general preflight and in-flight responsibility of the aircraft commander. The operations manual should define, where appropriate, the duties and responsibilities of people employed as:
a) flight dispatchers/flight watch officers;
b) flight planning assistants who prepare navigation flight plans and flight briefs, compute fuel requirements, Regulated Take-Off Weights (RTOWs) and
Aerodrome Operating Minima (AOM);
c) rostering and scheduling staff;
d) traffic officers or 'loadmasters' responsible for calculating maximum payload and/or fuel uplifts or for supervising the loading of aircraft and completing load/trim sheets.
3.2 If an operator employs flight operations officers in conjunction with a method of operational control, training for these personnel should be based on relevant parts of ICAO Doc 7192 - AN/857 D3 Training Manual - Flight Operations Officers/Flight Dispatchers. This should not be taken as a requirement for licensed flight dispatchers nor for a flight-following system.
Guidance on the role of the flight operations officer/flight dispatcher is contained in ICAO Doc 8335 The Manual of Procedures for Operations Inspection, Certification and Continued Surveillance. Detailed guidance on
the authorisation, duties and responsibilities of a flight operations officer/flight
dispatcher is contained in ICAO Doc 9376 Preparation of an Operations Manual.
Last edited by no sig; 23rd Jun 2008 at 15:08.