We general aviation pilots are used to, for all intents and purposes, dispatching our own flights. Even if we don’t think about it in those terms, that’s what we’re doing. We get the weather, figure our fuel needs, do weight and balance calculations, arrange for tiedown and fuel, if needed, and take care of all the other tasks related to the flight. Sometimes this is an easy thing to do. Sometimes, as you’ve no doubt learned from experience, making all the arrangements can be a bear.
Airline pilots have it easy, comparatively speaking, anyway. In commercial operations, the pilots team up with FAA-certified dispatchers to get all the dirty work done. The primary purpose of a dispatcher is to ensure that flights are safe and efficient, which is no different…