Can any SWA pilots answer this?

[EagleRJ]

After watching Southwest around the country, I've noticed that one constant in the way they fly is that they're always high on visual approaches. Sometimes they're more than just slightly above the glideslope or PAPI- they're way above it. I've been following them and staying two dots high, and they're still above my sight path to the threshold. I've been offsetting on the localizer one dot upwind to stay out of their wake, especially when ATC tucks me in right behind them.

Anyone know why SWA flies like that? Is it in their flight manual profiles? A guy I flew with said they do a mostly power-off approach to save fuel, but that doesn't make sense. The amount of fuel saved would be tiny, and it's not worth the chance of getting caught with a low airspeed, high sink rate, and engines unspooled. Are they all just getting late descent clearances?

 

[jetexas]

How come their 250 knots below 10,000 is always a helluva lot faster than MY 250 knots below 10?? : )

 

[Skybound737]

Do you always notice they are high at only one airport you are flying to/from? Maybe it's related to the arrival somehow. Some crews may ask for the visual early and slam dunk just to get down quicker too.

 

[350DRIVER]

They did the same thing day in and day out in HOU. I have no clue what the reason is other than possibly doing it as some sort of SWA "flow" to get as many company in and out at in a given amount of time. They seem to have everything else down to a science so this would not surprise me if this was part of the reasoning behind this. Only swa....


3 5 0

 

[Mookie]

Things most often heard over LAX tower:

"United, I dont' have time for your question right now, nor do I know what the ride is like up ahead."

"Mexicana, I said 170, not 250, and it's 25L not 24R." usually followed by the distinctive..."Royor"

"Skywest...cation wake turbulence...you're following SW."

we were paralleling them the other day into lax, and they were 1500' higher than us at the outer marker. they did make the reverse on 24R though....

 

[starchkr]

How come their 250 knots below 10,000 is always a helluva lot faster than MY 250 knots below 10?? : )....


And why is their 250 knots ALWAYS slower than mine!!!!!

 

[FN FAL]

Anyone know why SWA flies like that? Is it in their flight manual profiles? A guy I flew with said they do a mostly power-off approach to save fuel, but that doesn't make sense. The amount of fuel saved would be tiny, and it's not worth the chance of getting caught with a low airspeed, high sink rate, and engines unspooled. Are they all just getting late descent clearances?

Wouldn't you have expected to have gotten an answer on the Majors thread? I know this is the general thread, but a lot of SWA poolies and pilots chat on the majors thread.

Now if you mentioned jesus or democrats in your thread...then maybe you would have a few guys that would "hit that" over here on the general board.

 

[737tanker]

I can only tell you that the FOM requires SWA pilots to be stabilized on the approach at 1000ft for night & IMC. For day VMC it is 500ft. Stabilized means on the glideslope & at VRef with the engines spooled up. It seems to me that ATC does more slam dunk approaches with SWA than with others, & we don't request to be slam dunked. When on a visual we don't take the final out as far as the others do but per the FOM we don't do a glider approach.