Hot off the press: SWA to hire 450

[CyscoSydney18]

30 People viewing this thread at 1952 Herb time...guessing a few of you are in the pool...how many of you are there still floating...anyone know?

After the May 14th (which I believe has been filled) and the May 28th classes have been filled I think the pool has 250 remaining. It may be as low as 200. This is a very rough number that does not include anyone who has declined a spot or been flushed from the pool. I am in the pool and trying to keep track and I am sure someone has a more accurate number than this.

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

So do ya'll not use AT or VNAV at all currently?

We still don't do RNP officially...although it seems they spend half the manuevers sims teaching those dang things. Very cool procedures, though. It'll be nice when they get certification to implement them... as well as hopefully cut down the 4+ page briefing/set-up before doing them.

 

[swa737-700]

150 for training requirements (Auto throttle VNAV training will pull crews off line)


Interviews to start up again in July/Aug.

Why would SWA management hire 150 pilots for an "interim" situation? I do not buy this reasoning. We were told in recurrent just last month that all this training would require at most two sim periods. This hardly justifies 150 pilots.

 

[GuppyWN]

Yeah. Two sim periods and three runway excursions! Oh and a 5 minute CD which contains 4 minutes of Bob telling us "you're gonna love it."

We just now figured how to turn on that little 4 position switch on the forward panel that is labeled off/min/med/max. How *************************ing hard can they make it?!

You know what my VNav/Lnav/Autothrottle/Autobrake training was at Frontier? Something like this.

Capt: See that switch?
Me: Yep.
Capt: You can use that if you want.
Me: Cool. You gonna eat that cup of Ramen noodles?

Gup

 

[Golden Falcon]

RNP=Required Navigation Performnce...at max a 2-hr cbt with a questionnaire VNAV?? on the 75/76 it was a non-event part of the machine

 

[macdu]

OK, just sitting on the sidelines here reading this about what you guys don't do with the capabilities of your 73's, and the assumed need for more pilots after you have learned a very simple application of technology tells me something isn't right in SWA training or the fella' that has stated this need is grossly incorrect.

 

[Golden Falcon]

in the day SWA appears to have lowered the 73's capabilities to the fleet lowest common denominator...the -200??

 

[slaquer5]

...tells me something isn't right in SWA training or the fella' that has stated this need is grossly incorrect.

NO both are right. SWA training has spent alot of time to dummy down the 737 as much as humanly possible...

 

[jhill]

Not so fast. VNAV, RNP, and Autothrottles can all be taught at one time since they are all part of the VNAV solution. As for autothrottles alone, they could be taught with a handout imo. RNP can be taught with 30' CD, assuming your not leaving the confines of the continental US. Hardly a reason to hire 150 pilots. I'm not current on the B737NG, although I do teach RNAV/VNAV procedures in Boeing aircraft, so tell me where I'm going wrong here?

Your'e wrong only because of our culture of shunning automation here. You would not beleive the trouble we had here trying to use auto-brakes and we still don't utilize them correctly. They still teach manual braking for RTOs but require auto-brakes for landing on wet runways. Many of our guys can't even join an airway with the LNAV or even extend a centerline for an approach. It will be a mess of astronamical proportion beleive me.

Now if you want to see a group that can really hand fly an aircraft or do mental math for speed and decents this is the one but automation ain't their forte'

 

[Spooky 2]

RNP=Required Navigation Performnce...at max a 2-hr cbt with a questionnaire VNAV?? on the 75/76 it was a non-event part of the machine

VNAV is certainly a part of the machine, but VNAV approaches are a different animal and do take a couple of hours in the sim to master. Also, and this has nothing to do with the specific training per se, but your OpsSpecs need ammending and there are sveral different versions of that as well. Boeing teaches two types of approaches, ILS and non-ils approaches. Basically the non-ILS approaches all involve the application of VNAV procedures.

RNP/ANP is pretty much a no brainer in the continental US.