Dispatching a Helicopter

[SU-GCM]

Just wondering if companies running helicopters for whatever reason does have dispatchers ? do you guys sign a dispatch release have flight documents before every flight ? do you calculate amounts of fuel by rounding figures or having flight planning systems etc...

sorry if my question looks a bit stupid :ugh:

[Flying Bull]

Hi SU-GCM,


normaly there are no stupid questions – and I don´t 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 don´t have to leave the cockpit....


In the normal helicopter world I haven´t seen one dispatcher!
It´s 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, get´s 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 won´t 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 don´t 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, that´s all you need.....
And you´re sure, if you suffer cause something was forgotten, you can blame yourself ;-)



Greetings Flying Bull

[ShyTorque]

In the normal helicopter world I haven't seen one dispatcher!

Me neither. As a helicopter pilot for well over thirty years I've been required to do my own dispatching. I also do the liaison with the customer, carry out advance and immediate pre-flight planning. I find landing sites, gain written clearances and permissions etc. I also find hotel accommodation for myself. I prep the aircraft for flight. I tidy it, ensure it's clean, top up the lubricants, ensure it's refuelled, tow it out. There's no engineering support at base. Once I'm away from base it's all down to me anyway. When I get back to base, I ensure it's refuelled, tow it in and then carry out post flight admin work.

Many others do just the same.

[Scotsheli]

In the UK and Norway, most of the operators flying in support of Oil & Gas operate just like fixed wing airlines - dual pilot, IFR with all the associated planning - each operator uses a different system, often developed in house.

They all have flight dispatchers who, in one way or another, reconcile all of the passengers & freight, board them, perform a cabin check and then pass paperwork to the crew, usually through the cockpit window trying not to drop it...

The three heliports at Aberdeen (for example) handle something like 8,500 passengers outbound each week (hopefully a similar number inbound!) and moving that number of people needs quite a ground operation.

Hope that helps.

[GoodGrief]

Flying Bull describes the perfect world in Germany. Well, perfect depends who you ask, the pilot or the employer.

There are however countries that are in the unfortunate position of having clueless people acting as their aviation authorities.

It can go something like this:

The customer calls and wants to go from A to B.

1. write a letter stating route and time of flight, name of the passengers.
2. Fax letter to government
3. wait for fax to come back with „approved“ stamp
4. write letter to local government in charge of landing site
5. wait for approval
6. write same letter to police in charge of landing site
7. wait for approval
8. write flight plan
9. go to atc min1 hour before t/off, show all approvals in hand, only then will he fax flight plan to ais
10. have atc sign letter so that your customers vehicle can enter airport
11. wait for clearance from ais
12. ais sends flight plan to military officer
13. wait for his approval
14. get mil clearance
15. get into helicopter, ask for startup
16. wait 15 to 50 minutes to get startup clearance
17. take off

Want to go to C instead of B because customers plans have changed?
Impossible, because you do not have clearances and permissions.
Land at B, call office make arrangements for C and hope it works out.

Your job as pilot is to fly. No talking to customers, no presence in office.

[grumpytroll]

Dispatching of HEMS aircraft in the US in always a hot topic. At my company we currently have flight communicators that assign our flights from regional locations and also a command center that watches over all flights nationwide. Both flight follow using GPS SAT tracking and we remain in constant communication via 800 radio, SAT phone, NEXTEL, pager, VHF comms and if nothing else, personal cell. Each ground command center monitors weather and will give us updates as necessary but they are not trained officially to interpret weather. These current centers are very advanced comm centers that are available to assist in many ways. The meteorology aspect would be one of the costly changes to officially allow them to have the FAA title of dispatcher. The weight and balance and all that entails would be done using software and would be very helpful as mission requirements can at times change rapidly. Another benefit that can be derived from a dispatch center is that a maintenance coordinator can be available sitting along side the diispatcher. When operating single pilot, especially with no auto-pilot, can severly restrict a pilots ability to quickly adapt to changes so extra ground time is needed or you are lacking a very current weather update etc. For example, I would appreciate being able to call dispatch and get a professional weather update and forecast for my destination ( which could be a road intersection at an accident scene) rather that trying to poke buttons on the GMX-200 at night, lose my moving map, no AP, and then read and interpret the weather while flying. The recommendation has been made many times and the companies have fought it because of the large additional costs involved but have put in some good measures such as the communications specialists and the overall company command center.
My prediction is that we will go to a full dispatch system within ten years. I flew for many years in part 121 airline operations and the system using dispatch, meteorologists and maintenance has great safety benefits and can make the whole operation run very smoothly. One of the biggest battles that is fought is that some pilots resist the system feeling that it takes away some of their freedom to make decisions about their missions. Yes, I agree with that. Ideally the dispatcher is their to assist you, to feed you information but not to cross the line of dictating the actual conduct of the flight. A thin line to be sure.

tightening chinstrap for incoming

Cheers

[SU-GCM]

@Flying Bull & GoodGrief:
I really appreciate your input and (Flying bull) your introduction regarding the stupid question :)
That was very informative !

@Scotsheli
Nice joke about not dropping the flight documents :}

@others :
Your input was very much appreciated .. Thank You !

@grumpytroll
I totally agree with you about the need of a dispatcher for such operations !
That would enhance safety , Quality and of course will reduce the work load on the pilots !
at least that needs an operations controller to finish all that needed paper work previously mentioned by others which sound like a headache !