New stuff

Seneca have started a new dispatch system and scheduling system beginning May 5th.
The new dispatch system includes:

a Duty Instructor
a receptionist - junior student
ramp attendant - junior student
flight follower - senior student
and a dispatcher - senior student

Flight crewmembers are suppose to sign in with the dispatcher and be briefed by the dispatcher first with their flights to see if they are ready and prepared for it. Then they are briefed again by the duty instructor and authorized (signed their trip slip) for the flight. This is for solo and mutual flights. I'm not sure about dual flights since they have their own instructor there to brief them.

The receptionist - in charge of who's in and who's not in the hangar, and answering phone calls. Also they are in charge of calling people on the reserve, standby or volunteer list. More on that later.

The ramp attendant - in charge of ground duties such as cleaning the windshield after each flight, monitoring refuelling and listening to Buttonville ground to see if the aircraft has in fact landed or in the area. Verifying the actual times with the ETA.

The flight follower - in charge of monitoring Seneca ground frequency and recording off, up, down, and in times. In charge of calling for fuel 30 minutes before arrival of aircraft so they don't have to actually wait when they arrive.

The dispatcher - dispatches the flights and makes sure everyone does their duties and coordinates with the duty instructor so that they can maximize time management. When an aircraft is not in use, they can contact and arrange flights for people in the reserve, standby and volunteer list.

Reserve - people on reserves must report within 60 mins of being called in and must be prepared for their flight.

Standby - are people who arrive at the hangar at the same time as others and wait for available aircraft for their lesson. I'm not really sure on who gets called in first.

Volunteer - when worse comes to worst and they need those airplanes in the air, they can call people on the volunteer list and they must report within 90 mins of being called out.

So everyday there is a reserve and standby list but volunteer is obviously voluntary.

Crew resource management is definitely the biggest reasons for this, so that we don't get left behind on scheduled flights.
They have also extended operating hours from 0600 to 2300 on weekdays during the summer.

Another new things Seneca has deployed/used is a new scheduling system. Flight schedule Pro, they said it's much better than the old one. I guess it's true because instead of having 2 shifts, the shifts are really divided to when the airplanes come down.

Some people though are complaining because as much as it is better for flights, it's asking more of the students and instructors. Not everyone can make it there at 6am.

Fortunately I can, so hopefully when I get on the real flight line, I'll be able to have more flights than normal. Because right now I'm still on simulators. (Phase Zero we call it, and that is also new this year)

A few of my classmates who started Phase Zero during second semester have already gone solo, so it must have been a great choice to have phase zero! I just started this week so, it's going to be a while before I actually start flying.