SWA GS Prep

[canyonblue737]

Sorry to butt into your thread here, but it strikes me as just plain wrong that you would have to buy study material for an airline, especially an airline of the supposed caliber as Southwest. At every airline I have ever worked for ( and that is quite a few ) I have never had the need to purchase study material beforehand. Sure, if the company provides the manuals in advance it is a good idea to study them, but to go buy third party information in advance is wrong. I can't believe that Southwest themselves allows that to happen. A good training organization, in the interest of standardization, will try to keep that kind of material to a minimum by themselves providing good study material.


TP

of course they provide material themselves in advance. a CD-ROM with a bunch of nice stuff to know before you get there and all the manuals you could ever need the day you arrive. some choose to prepare in advance with 3rd party materials but that is neither necessary or required.

my recommendation is simple: learn the memory items and limitations (should take a day to learn) and if you have any spare time look at and begin to learn the flows. the REALITY is this: if you show up without preparing at all... you will still do just fine. enjoy time with your family as priority #1 before training because training lasts 5 - 6 weeks and you will be away.

 

[FlyBarneyJets]

Cant wait to see everyone on wednesday in DAL........


SEEEEE YAAAAA

What, you're not going to the party on Tuesday night?!?

Heheh...see you there!

As far as this advanced-study thing is concerned, I always seem to overpromise and underperform in that area. Looking over the memory items, I don't see anything that is drastically different from the memory items I've been using to fly my last company's turboprops and jets. Flows, however, are a very difficult thing for me to learn if I don't have a way to establish some muscle memory. I do much better when I get into a CPT. I guess you can say that I'm very much aware of how I learn.

I've done the advanced reading they outline for the first few days. Other than that, I've watched my daughter crawl around the floor for the last two weeks. It's been great.

With six weeks in Dallas, I'll have no distractions (stupid FlightInfo!!), and I'll have all the resources I need at my fingertips. It will be much easier for me to get motivated.

 

[AlbieF15]

War story from 727 FO upgrade....100% true...

Study, study, study....highlight highlight highlight....chairfly chairfly chairfly, etc etc.

First FTDs go fine (sim with no motion/visuals). Then to the "real" sim, and sims 1, 2 , and 3 consist of hearing gravelly voiced pro-IP repeatedly critique my terrible performance at landing the sim (an art in of itself...). My P-3 FO training bro is no help...he is greasing his landings and generally avoiding looking too buffonish while I wrestle this huge sky pig and crash and bounce time after time.

Realizing that sim 4 is going to be miserable anyway, I give up all attempts at study and go boozing/gambling at Tunica the night prior to morning of sim 4. The next day, the sim goes very well, and the IP says "...whatever you did yesterday you need to KEEP DOING IT!". Figuring the guy was a professional and knew his stuff, I did my best to follow that advice, and a new nightly ritual was solidfied. This even included some boozing and gambling the night before my checkride.

Results...well...no additional training required. I think I got "tight" worrying about my first airline upgrade, but when I backed off myself a bit and treated it "just like another d@mn plane" things went pretty well. Your mileage may vary, but the line between knowing your stuff and being too tense is a fine one. Don't be afraid to let your hair down once in a while and have a little fun.

Good luck in any case.