Watch this video to get a short introduction to what you can do as a Dispatcher in FlightLogger's Departure/Arrival page:
The Dispatcher role
Users that have been given the Dispatcher user role are the only ones who can edit status of flights on the Departure/Arrival board from the ground.
We recommend that you only add the dispatcher role to actual dispatch employees in your organization, as best practice is otherwise to have the flight registrants* provide the Departure/Arrival information via live flight registrations.
*Flight registrant is the instructor, crew, or renter that proceeds the flight registration via FlightLogger.
How to apply the Dispatcher role to a user
First go to the relevant user and click Settings -> Edit info
From here, enable Access and then the Dispatcher user role and click Update.
How to edit flight status as a dispatcher in Departure/Arrivals
When visiting the Departure/Arrival page as a user with the Dispatcher role enabled, you will have a pencil icon on the far right side of each flight.
Clicking this icon allows you to edit key info on the selected flights:
Note that if you have enabled the setting Enable warning popup when dispatching, there will be an extra step before beginning process described below.
This is explained here.
- Status: this can be set to either Scheduled, Briefing, Flight, Landed or Debriefing.
When set to status Flight, these additional informations can be edited:
- Call sign: allows you to change the aircraft of the flight
- Fuel added and Departure fuel: can be set if enabled in account settings
- OFF BLOCK: sets the off-block time of the flight
- ETA: sets the expected time of arrival of the flight
- Departure and Arrival airport: sets the departure and arrival airport of the flight
- Lesson for XXX: Allows to define the program and lesson for the relevant student
The inserted information is then displayed on the Departure/Arrival page.
Important to know: flight edits done as a dispatcher only affect the Departure/Arrivals page. They are not flight registrations and will therefore not be added to any flight records, reports etc. Actual flight registrations must be done by the registrant via a flight registration.
However, to help the registrant flight edit information set by a dispatcher are automatically set as default when a registrant proceeds the flight registration afterwards. But it is the responsibility of the registrant that all data are registered correctly. This is also why the dispatcher is not able to mark flights as completed via the Departure/Arrival page.
Viewing Departure/Arrival history as a dispatcher
Users with the Dispatcher role are the only ones who have access to History on the Departure/Arrival page. History provides an overview of all flights that have been set as status Completed or Debriefing.
To open the history view, simply click the History box.
This opens the overview for a default date range, which you can adjust.
Flights in Debriefing: These are flights that have been marked as being in status Debriefing by either the registrant or the dispatcher. Via the column Movement you can see which user has moved it to this status.
Since this status represents a "fuzzy" state where the actual flight is normally completed but the registration hasn't yet been submitted, only limited flight details are displayed. You will also not be able to find these in any flight records, since they are not yet completed. Flights with the Debriefing status can still be edited by the Dispatcher according to the above-mentioned instructions.
Completed flights: These are flights that have been completed, which means the registrant has filled out and submitted the flight registration. Flights with the Completed status can therefore no longer be edited by a dispatcher.
Editing flight status as a dispatcher via the Create bookings page
Users that have both the Dispatcher and a Booking administrator user role additionally have the option to edit flight status on a booking directly from the Create bookings page.
You can learn how via this article.