BA-Meetup developments
Yes we are trying to get something going in Europe so that at least the people who cannot attend conferences in the USA, will have an opportunity to get some training and information, or can exchange experiences. This year is the start but it will grow. One of the sessions is:
"Scheduling and Dispatch in Business Aviation" by Helmut Lehr, Chief Flight Dispatcher, Comlux Aviation, Zurich, Switzerland
"A flight dispatcher is situated in a business aviation operation or dispatch center assisting pilots with performance calculations, flight planning, weather analysis and briefing, performing as many pre-flight tasks as possible for the flight deck. Contrary to US regulations, in Europe a dispatcher was never required. Instead the workload and responsibility always rested with the pilot in command. Nowadays with all the sophisticated and state of the art business jets, with possible air times of up to 14 hours, pilots easily reach their maximum possible duty time limits even without pre-flight duties. The need for employing dispatchers has now been raised by the pilots to their flight operation departments. Research has shown that 85% of operators with less than 10 aircraft operate without licensed dispatchers and do not have sufficiently educated and trained staff for their operation departments." We will also have Danny Mortensen from Airline Ground Schools as a speaker. He is a specialist on dispatcher training in the USA. He will tell us in the next couple of days what his topic will be. We are also planning on a meeting with the press to tell them about our future plans for Dispatcher training. In addition we have a number of other interesting subjects. We are still working hard on completing the program, but it will be worthwhile attending. Any suggestions are welcome. Cheers, Cdr. Bud Slabbaert, Chairman of the BA-Meetup