Hi SU-GCM,
normaly there are no stupid questions and I donīt know all of the industry but I have the feeling, that this could become an interesting thread ;-)
Or in other words you asked for it ;-)
As I said, no idea about the oil-industry, which might squeeze all the flight time out of the pilot they can get and cause of that organize some information for the pilots, so they donīt have to leave the cockpit....
In the normal helicopter world I havenīt seen one dispatcher!
Itīs all up to the pilot and he is not only doing all af the calculations mostly by rule of thumb, he is also often loading the freight and the persons, doing the safety briefings, getīs transportation for the passengers at the arrival, before he cleans up and puts his bird to bed, does minor repairs and so on.
Often, flight planning is done on short notice, even in flight.
On a way back of a powerline- or piplelinecontrol he might get a call or SMS from the boss, somewhere at point A is a broken truck or truck stuck behind a mayor accident, which has vital parts for an industry at point B.
Task, fly to the truck, load as much cargo as you can and deliver it to the industry.
Then fly back to the truck and repeat cause stopping the working process will cost the company, who delivers the parts, something like 30.000 a hour!
Then you start calculating fuel / cargo ratio best to use, whether to refuel first or later, where you might get fuel and so on while flying towards the truck, keeping in mind, where you can get a good overnight stop, cause you wonīt be able to make it home that day.
As a helicopter pilot you do much more than flying, you have contact to the clients, call the smal airports for landing permits and donīt forget to ask, if they have fuel available, you book hotels and cars to get there and if erverything is organized, you fly and if you have forgot something, you will suffer....
Luckly most of the C/G problems in the helicopter world, (except in the big like chinook and so on) an experienced pilot will anticipate without looking in the books so he knows when to to so.....
But back to the topic, why a dispatcher for tuna spotting, for pipeline and powerlinecontrol, for spraying and so on? As a helicopter pilot you know your bird and how the work is done.
You have the rules of thumb figures in you head for temperature and height corrections and unless you get it wrong and crash because of that, survive and have the accident-board hunting for you head, thatīs all you need.....
And youīre sure, if you suffer cause something was forgotten, you can blame yourself ;-)
Greetings Flying Bull