SWA lands at wrong Branson Airport

[SWA Bubba]

Bubba and Wave-

I don't think Nindiri is flaming; I think he is being sincere. Many of the pilots who have transitioned over have expressed surprise and dismay at the lack of use of some of the technology that makes operating in todays' ATC environment safer and easier. I'm betting you will see these becoming SOP at SWA, but they don't seem to be yet.

A couple of examples-

IAN approaches- much more stabilized approach for nonprecision approaches

Deselecting Speed Mode- instead of disconnecting autothrottles entirely, it retains Alpha floor protection

Level Change- Maintain ATC assigned speed while descending in the terminal area (unlike Vert Speed)

If you haven't sat on the jumpseat of another 737 operator to see how they are doing things, I would highly recommend it. You may be quite surprised.

PS, Wave spare me the stories about your hairy-chested manly flying skills. :laugh:

Thanks for your input, Ty, but sorry; I DO think he was flaming, because the specific examples he used were complete crap.

I can certainly agree that we can do some things better, and clearly anyone can learn from other operators' procedures. If it's better or safer, then we should definitely take that under our belt. And we DO learn and change as a result. All the damn time. Despite Nindiri's blanket denials.

Can we still do some things better? I'm sure we can. Can we learn from AirTran procedures (and other carriers)? Surely. I personally don't know what IAN approaches are, having never done one, but if they're better, hopefully the company will adopt them. The other examples you gave are already in practice here; I use them all the time.

Bubba

 

[Ty Webb]

Good to hear, Bubba.

 

[waveflyer]

And I agree with bubba Ty, but I do like our flying culture here- learning from others doesn't mean we don't do certain things very well and should retain them.

And I've actually flown for quite a few operators

And you haven't transitioned yet, right Ty? So how are you opinionated.

 

[waveflyer]

Because SWA is not "better" than the rest of the industry. Note I didn't say worse either. Airlines go through good periods or bad. Look at Delta in the 90's. Anyone thumping their chest about being better than anyone else is wrong. Right now SWA is making the news for all the wrong reasons, LGA and Branson. It could happen to any of us. We have a superior safety record than you. So what. It doesn't mean we are better. Hawaiian is doing a lot right right now, but I would hardly be smug about it.

Back to the AM's in row. Have you found that you can't do 3 days in a row of AM departures under the new regs? I don't do inter-island but that's what I heard.

No and that's all I was asking dan- the 117 part.
Yes, I'm not a typical AMer but most of January has been AMs and I've flown 3 days of 5-7am reports three times now since 117 came about

 

[Ty Webb]

And I agree with bubba Ty, but I do like our flying culture here- learning from others doesn't mean we don't do certain things very well and should retain them.

And I've actually flown for quite a few operators

And you haven't transitioned yet, right Ty? So how are you opinionated.

Um . . . . I've sat in the front. I've sat in the back. Many times. I saw with my eyes, I heard with my ears, and I felt with my ass. . . Oh, wait, that was the SLI. Never mind.

:laugh:

 

[waveflyer]

Resident expert then

Proceed (with your metro manscaped shaved chest)

 

[Nindiri]

Thanks for your input, Ty, but sorry; I DO think he was flaming, because the specific examples he used were complete crap.
/QUOTE]

I'm not sure why you're so defensive, Bubba, no one is accusing you of anything. But the fact remains that four incidents of the same type in less than 13 years is not random chance. And that's not even including the tail-strike incident since it was a relatively minor incident. You say we've analyzed each incident and made changes, yet the same incidents keep happening. How long do we want to tempt fate?

You can try to explain it away by blaming the airport or thrust levers being "slightly" out of idle, but the bottom line is that we, as a group, seem to have issues with putting an airplane down safely on the runway. We've broken three airplanes and narrowly averted a disaster in another. As Southwest pilots, we either look at what we're doing and fix it, or we're going to hurt someone. It's not about which airline has the safest pilots, it's about being professionals, and professionals don't blame thrust levers being slightly out of idle for overrunning a runway.

 

[waveflyer]

You sound like general lee repeating the argument that bubba already addressed rationally very well

 

[Nindiri]

And yet, the landing incidents continue.

But hey, let's just blame it on the airport like Bubba and hope we stay lucky.

 

[JT12345]

I'm claiming the only way to evaluate safety practices is to analyze the data about how each airlines practices mitigate accidents.

You guys need more gates on your profiles, so there are more red flags that a pilot can identify. Maybe they were added after LGA, but Branson proves otherwise from the outside looking in. If only you would read our books, and use more guidelines. Look at our FOQA data. It's free. You own it. I don't care if you admit it. Take it from a carrier that had to keep a low profile after the everglades and a few fires. Again I am not there yet, and I don't know what is really going on yet. When was the last time a green and white airplane made the news?

knock on wood