For those of you who either work with me or are employed in the same position at another airline, please go ahead and save yourself some time and skip this. It'll be dull. I'm trying to answer some of the questions posed about what it is I do for money... well I'd do a lot of things for money to be honest, but this is my actual "career". OK, lets get going....
I'm going to focus on a specific flight for this, but keep in mind there could be 30 or so others being worked/watched at various stages during a shift.
So what does a flight dispatcher do? That's a tough one. We do all the things that most people assume airline pilots do, like figure the fuel needed to get a planeload of people from point A to point B and determine if the weather is nice on the way and what not. They don't, at least not at the big plane level. By big plane, I mean any airplane carrying more than 19 people including the Barbie Dream Jets that my commuter friends fly :-).
So, let's get down to the boring details shall we. Hours before the pilots get to the airport and start looking are self important in their uniforms, or passengers are being harassed about the size of their carry on, I and others like me are planning to get them safely to their destinations. Could be 6 hours before departure, all depends on things like weather and my personal busy level.
If I've noticed anything in the last 10 years of doing this, it's that the amount of information related to weather conditions has become incredibly voluminous, though it's not always anymore accurate. Could be I've gone from airlines with minimal budgets and resources to airlines with seemingly unlimited variety of maps and charts. For a brief introduction to what we're looking at, check out the Aviation Weather Center. It's the weather products provided by the US Government (via NOAA and the NWS). A lot of the info here is published for private pilots in their single engine prop planes, but the basic content is the same used by the large air carriers Granted, we have prettier maps that are more detailed and go further out into the future (I think we have a 128 hour map that's pretty much pointless to me). But that being said, you can pretty much get away planning an airline flight with the weather info the government gives away for free on that website if it's a good weather day and there's no extraneous issues to deal with. But it's not generally specific enough to do it really well.
So, here we go. Tonight, we're going to focus on a flight to Omaha. We all know the airport designator system, where we refer to a city by a three letter code. In this case, it's OMA. That's for the traveling public. The airlines operations use the four letter coding system, so OMA is known as KOMA. Fairly simple in the contiguous US, basically it's the regular three letter designator with a K on the front. Outside the US, it's slightly more complicated. For instance Paris-Charles De Gaul airport, or CDG, becomes LFPG in ICAO parlance. It's an easier system once you learn it. For more information, check here if you're really curious.
So, we're operating a B757 from KSDF to KOMA. In a summary of what happens now is we check the weather and NOTAMs (or NOTices to AirMen,which is the system for letting us know something at the airport isn't working or certain airspace isn't usable). Checking the weather forecast for an arrival at a 1000Z (Z denotes it's in Universal Coordinated Time,or Zulu time. This is a time set at the Prime Meridian that runs through Greenwich England. The use of "Z" time is a way to standardize flights and ATC operations worldwide. All flight plans are filed with a planned departure time in Z. In the Eastern US, currently Z time is 4 hours ahead of local time, so 1000Z is 0600Lcl in ATL... trying to compute Z versus local in ones head on a global scale gives me a headache).
SO, the weather forecast that's issued for KOMA currently reads:
KOMA 052320Z 0600/0624 VRB03KT P6SM SCT015 BKN100
TEMPO 0600/0601 -SHRA SCT015CB
FM060300 VRB02KT P6SM SCT100
FM060700 VRB02KT 3SM BR OVC006
TEMPO 0610/0613 1SM BR OVC006
FM061500 10005KT 6SM BR BKN015
FM061700 17006KT P6SM SCT250
IN plain English all that means that around the time of the expected arrival that winds will be almost calm, visibility of 3 Miles, mist, and the clouds will overcast at 600 feet above the airport, with occasional periods of visibility of a 1 mile. Weather that "bad" requires an alternate airport be used. Simplistically, any weather forecast less than clear and beautiful requires an alternate airport be designated for the flight, and fuel be planned to get there in case you can't land at the destination. Tonight we're using KMCI (or MCI, Kansas City Int'l... trivia... why is it MCI and not something like KCI? The original name for the airport was Mid Continent Int'l Airport... MCI).
Also a consideration is the en route weather. This time of year, there's a lot of instability in the atmosphere. This is mostly caused by heating during the day, but there's the instability caused by a weather fronts (in general, "cold" fronts bring thunderstorms, "warm" fronts bring moderate to light rain, Low pressure is bad weather and High pressure is good weather..the "L" and "H" you'd see on the TV weather maps of old. There are of course exceptions). So, though there's no frontal systems, the weather guessers are putting out there's a possibility of thunderstorms forming in the middle of the country. There's a system moving through the Dakota's and again in Kansas and Oklahoma... where every night in the summer there's seemingly thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are generally recognized to be bad for airplanes, and to be avoided. But the nature of severe thunderstorms not associated with a weather front makes it hard to plan for. Basically guessing where a thunderstorm will form in 6 hours... you can get a pretty good idea of the area but not the exact spot. So we plan for this uncertainty by adding fuel to "deviate" around them.
Let's talk about fuel for a moment. In the "domestic" US (which excludes Hawaii and Alaska according to the FAA), the law prescribes a minimum fuel requirement. In nutshell, you have to have enough fuel to fly from point A to point B, which considers any forecast headwinds or tailwinds and any whacky required routings. Back in the olden days you needed to stick to "airways" that ran between ground based radio stations that sent out a signal for receivers onboard to home in on. Today, we have al kind of fancy equipment that allows us to go from any point to any other point. But there are still some general rules that need to be followed, and during busy times of the day between busy airports, like ATL to LGA, there are required routings for traffic management. Oddly, between Louisville and Omaha at 4 AM there's not much demand so I can plan the flight any way I want. You also are required to carry fuel to get to an alternate airport if needed, plus a 45 minute "reserve" of fuel. ANd then anything else I see that looks liek ti would require more gas above and beyond that.
Generally we aspire for the most economic or fastest routing depending on the needs at the time. Since this is a fairly short 1 hour and 25 minute flight, the hurry up factor isn't important and we have favorable winds. Also, since the plane continues on west from KOMA, and gas is expensive there, we're carrying enough fuel to get to the west coast to save money and not buy gas in Omaha. Had this not been "tankering" flight, would have probably picked a closer Alternate airport to save on the costs.
I've heard people ask why we don't just fill 'er up and go. This usually comes up when a flight has to divert after holding for a while. Well, fuel has weight, and the more a plane weighs, the more it burns. So carrying extra fuel for no reason costs money in burning extra fuel. By regulation, I have to plan for "known or anticipated" delays. Like if there's thunderstorms anywhere east of the Mississippi and I'm planning a flight to Newark (KEWR), there's a good chance there's going to be holding or delays or required reroutes. In the New York area, if the wind is blowing strong (more then 12 MPH) from a certain direction, all the airports of there go on a delay. The other reason we don't gas em up is the weight. You don't need a plane that's too heavy to take off or land. That's bad, cause then you leave money making stuff behind (or you leave a bent airplane at the end of the runway is (in technical aviation terminolgy) "no bueno").
So, all his stuff has been looked at. The computer has spit out the most efficient (allegedly) route based on the winds and temps and all that. We've looked at the weather and the NOTAMs that say the airports will be open and we can land there. We've checked the runways to make sure they're long enough for us to take off and land at the weight we need, and we've added a (and this is another technical aviation term) "shitload" of fuel since we have to get to Reno next without getting gas in Omaha.
All the above taks me about 15-45 minutes depending on the weather and amount of crap I have to read. There's other considerations (like determining if the airplane has anything not working that would make flying this route "no bueno". (Little known fact for the public, airplanes can fly with not everything working in perfect order. Somethings require a penalty (like driving a car without working windshield wipers, you have to make sure you're not going to be in rain), somethings don't (one of the 40 reading lights in the cockpit doesn't work.. no biggie). Today, the plane is in good shape.
All this relevant info has been compiled, and a 20 page packet has been generated to give to the Captain. When he shows up about an hour before departure, he (allegedly) reads this 20 page brief and says "I like it". At that point he signs off on it. I've already digitally signed it by sending the flight release, and both us agree this flight can be operated safely as planned. Now this packet is 20 pages just to get from Louisville to Omaha. Some longer flights, lets say from Paris to Hong Kong, can be 40+ pages long. It's a true statement that when a plane moves, a forest must die (and thins in the age of "electronic record keeping"). I've also sent an electronic message to Air Traffic Control that contains the info they need, like the type of airplane, planned routing, altitudes, speed, endurance (how long the plane can fly with the fuel planned), types of equipment (or avionics) the airplane is equipped with, and a bunch of other things. It looks basically like this:
(FPL-DMB123-IS
-B752/M-SDHIJPRWZ/S
-KSDF0820
-N0468F360 SDWST1 ELIOE J8 STL DCT LMN MARWI1
-KOMA0125 KMCI
-EET/KZID0007 KZKC0021 KZMP0101 REG/N444JD SEL/ABCD OPR/DMB
DOF/110806 RVR/75 RMK/TCAS DAT/V NAV/RNVD1E2A1 RNAV1 RNAV5 RNP5)
The FAA computer ingests this and spits out a "strip" of paper with the relevant information to the Air traffic controllers that will be handling the fight. (And yes, I changed a lot of the info on there to be non specific to an actual flight/airplane)
SO, now the planning part is done. There's 25 more to do. Meanwhile, I've taken over "watching" about 15 or so planes in the air from another dispatcher. Let's get into the watching part, or flight following.
Now we get pretty pictures. We have this nifty program that allows me to put up a map of the US (or World and zoom where ever I want) and overlay weather radars, and fronts and locations of airports and radio aids and all kind of crap. it can almost be information overload if you let it. it also gives an almost realtime location of airplanes flying. You can get the same thing from websites, and even some airline websites pull up a feed like this when you check your flight status. My first dispatch job, we used the websites for free for a while. But we always knew where the plane was if we needed to find them from their paper flight planes and position reports they'd send every hour or so. The old "manual" flight following was ok for 5 or 6 flights, but it can be labor intensive and quickly become overwhelming if you're having a bad day.
So now, our flight is about to take off. Since the crew got out to the plane some thunderstorms have formed up and moving into the planned route. (In the picture below, the airplane has just got off the ground, and the blue line is the flight plan routing
Well, I can't let him fly into a big 60,000ft tall airplane killing thunderstorm. And since, by law, I'm jointly responsible with the captain for making sure this flights ops safely, I need to tell him what's coming. So, i send him what is essentially a text message to a communications unit on board the airplane:
FYI AHEAD MAY WANNA PUSH NORTH OF ROUTE TOWARD SPI THEN LMN
ISSUED AT 060755
CONVECTIVE SIGMET 38C
VALID UNTIL 0955Z
TN KY IL MO AR
FROM 20SSW IRK-10NE STL-10SW FAM-DYR
LINE TS 25 NM WIDE MOV FROM 27020KT. TOPS ABV FL450.
The white box on the map pic above is the graphical representation of a convective sigmet, or an area of a significant meteorological event (can be rough turbulence or icing, etc..). In this case it's a"Convective" area, which means thunderstorm. I'm telling the crew to go north to the SPI VOR (a radio beacon on the ground) then direct to the LMN VOR. The yellow symbols are radio navigation aids, or navaids, of various types. SPI is goes by the name "spinner" and is near Springfield, IL.
So shortly after the message is sent, I see this:
The crew and ATC have worked out a route from his current position "direct" to destination. the blue line is the new planned route of fight. However, that isn't going to keep them away from the hail laden 60,000ft tall thunderstorm. Airplanes have found themselves in airborne hail storms and lost pieces, had windshields cracked, been dented, and some cases crashed. (On example, look up Southern Air Flight 242 that crashed in New Hope, GA in 1977. The good news is the weather radar technology is 1000 times better today.) So while the crew will see this on their airplane's weather radar and avoid, if I can get them to go around earlier, it'll save them from burning excessive fuel to get around at the last minute, which could put the flight in a low fuel situation later.
However that direct doesn't give them enough room to go around, and the crew has asked ATC for a deviation from the route (notice they go almost to the SPI VOR I suggested earlier, go me!). Also you can see other company flights (the blue planes) that aren't my flights. There's another flight (the blue line to the south) that I'm also following and working on a plane to get him through the airplane killing thunderstorms. ATC has also issued a new Convective Sigmet area, shown on the map below
ISSUED AT 060855
CONVECTIVE SIGMET 42C
VALID UNTIL 1055Z
TN KY IL MO
FROM 30SSE IRK-30N STL-40NE FAM-10ESE FAM-20N DYR
LINE TS 25 NM WIDE MOV FROM 27020KT. TOPS ABV FL450.
30 minutes after the first message I sent, we're around and on the way to KOMA (A city in middle America). The pink line behind the plane shows his route flown, the purple lines are the boundaries for Air Traffic Control centers' airspace. Our KOMA flight is currently talking to Kansas City Center.
Keep in mind, this is only one of my flights. there's all the others that are flying through these other areas of weather (the white boxes around thunderstorms) that are getting the same attention. The red planes are mine (and have the associated information tags) the blue are other company jets:
Now they've started descent into KOMA, about 90 Nautical Miles out. The crew as the ATIS (Automated Terminal Information System) that gives them the latest actual
weather, the runways in use, and any important information about things at the airport not working. This is both available to be sent to the airplane as a text message, and is read by a recorded voice over the radio:
OMA ARR/DEP INFO E 0944Z SPECIAL. 08004KT 10SM
BKN031 23/22 A2983 (TWO NINER EIGHT THREE). ILS
APCH 14R, 14L IN USE. NOTAMS... TWY A CLSD SOUTH
OF TWY D, TWY L CLSD BTWN TWY M AND TWY U, TWY L3
CLSD, NUM TWY CLOSURES CK LCL NOTAMS. AIR CARRIER
RAMP UNCONTROLLED PUSHBACK CALLS NOT REQUIRED.
HAZD WX INFO FOR OMA AREA AVBL FM HIWAS FLT WATCH
OR FSS. ...ADVS YOU HAVE INFO E.
Translated to English, at 0944 Zulu time a special weather observation as taken (special in that it's not the normal hourly observation), the winds are blowing form the east at 4 knots (About 4.6 MPH), visibilty is 10 miles, there's a cloud "ceiling" at 3100 ft above the airport, the instrument approaches to runways 14R and 14L are currently being used, and a bunch of taxiways are closed.
Almost there, they will fly a downwind leg (or parallel to the runways the opposite direction of landing) then turn to final. From the info tag, you can see the plane is at 6800 ft (above Sea level in this case) and descending and flying at 276 Knots. The other info I have set up to show is org and dest, airplane type, and Estimated Arrival time. You can also see the runway layout for the airport (and KOPF, which is Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha).
So, that's that. Plane lands and another miracle of aviation is completed. This night I had a relatively light work load, so not a lot of stressing out. No major weather systems ruined my night and it was a light flying night being a weekend for us. So, I only had to do this about 20 times. That in a nutshell is a night for Jamie at work. I hope that this was informative and interesting and not too verbose for everyone. I think that's a pretty good coverage of the job, but I didn't get into too much detail (seriously, this is the light version). There'sa bout 30 other programs and applications running on my 3 monitor workstation, and a 4th montior that's just the phone keypad (that I dial up or radio any airplane, anywhere, we have flying and the saved numbers for seemingly every Air traffic services provider in the world.) I do not work for the FAA, but instead the airline. Every air carrier has a relatively small group of dispatchers that keep the planes moving safely. The dispatchers are legally the ones who delay and cancel your flights (don't hate us). And we have all been tested and certificated by the FAA to perform the job, then trained for what seems like an eternity by the airline. Not to mention the yearly recurrent training for things that change and ongoing new procedures instituted worldwide.
If I left anything unclear please ask. I'm thinking about saving this to show anyone who asks what i do for a living, but I don't think whipping out a lengthy presentation with visual aides will quite work in a bar. So, I'll jut keep telling people "yes, I work in the tower". Yeah, it's a neat job.
Last pic, a snapshot of every plane in the air, regardless of airline or owner, at 630AM Eastern on a Saturday:
No comments:
Post a Comment