SWAPA Comments about 717

[humveedriver]

Hopefully the 737 type thing goes away for applicants. Not sure what the value of a -200 rating is anymore, other than for nostalgia's sake. It's good for Higher Power is suppose. My understanding the training is 62 days, but the first two weeks are admin and liver acclimation cultural training period ;-)

 

[texman]

Hopefully the 737 type thing goes away for applicants. Not sure what the value of a -200 rating is anymore, other than for nostalgia's sake. It's good for Higher Power is suppose. My understanding the training is 62 days, but the first two weeks are admin and liver acclimation cultural training period ;-)

It's actually a full 62 days of liver acclimation.

 

[SWA Bubba]

BTW, Bubba, I saw your fine print. What did ever happen to to old Fubi? I was a lot less civil with him than anything I've ever directed towards SWAPA when he started in on Hawaiian.

That's a damn good question. I can't believe that -I- ran him off single-handedly, although I was pretty hard on him for his blanket jumpseat denials just for working for Virgin or JetBlue. Although I DO believe it was his daily complaining to the board's owner about my signature (two of his contradictory quotes) that got them to turn off everyone's automatic signature block.

I've noticed that Zonejumper isn't around either... I always thought they were a couple. Can't say I miss him, but I miss not being able to rag on him; he was too easy.

Bubba

 

[Slug]

It's actually a full 62 days of liver acclimation.

God, ain't that the truth.

As far as the comment about rebuilding the widget or from the ground up: hahahahahahaha


SWA training is nothing like that...no rebuilding anything. I don't remember much of what we did for that long (see quote above), but it was not rebuilding a -737



Slug
Welcome, love you guys, first one's on me

 

[j41driver]

How are they dealing with 717 pilots who have never flown the 737 before, haven't had ANY systems training on it, don't have the type, etc, etc?

We do a week of self-guided computer-based systems training in initial 737 then another week on switchology, FMS, and avionics, and even the recurrent online version takes almost 2 days to chew through. The company didn't teach you "rebuild the airplane", it was pretty rudimentary stuff to tell the truth, but from what I'm hearing from the training program there at SWA, it's about half that time on systems... more like a review?

Are you expected to have a certain amount of basic 737 systems knowledge before you show up for class? Honest question, a 717 buddy of mine the other day asked about it and I didn't know what to tell him.

I'm in DAL now and I can tell you that I've never felt more welcome than I have felt the last few weeks here. Its been a very good experience so far. The systems class does seem geared toward those that have flown 737 or have the type. 3 days of -700 systems and 1 day of -300/-500/-800 differences. Its a lot of information stuffed into a very short time frame. Several people have asked questions that to me seemed normal to my AT way of learning an airplane but it's considered "building the airplane" here. That said, my AT training was more in depth than any of the 3 type ratings I have from my previous airline. Have to recalibrate I guess. Knowing limitations, memory items, flows and profiles seem to get much of the emphasis at SWA. They also have what is called a NextGen PC study guide which outlines the stuff you need to know to pass the PC. So far everyone has been getting through just fine and I have no reason to think that would change. Keeping an open mind and leaving "that's not how we did it at AirTran" out of your vocabulary will be a big help.

Anyway, that's my take on it so far. YMMV.

 

[LeeRoyJenkins]

That's a damn good question. I can't believe that -I- ran him off single-handedly, although I was pretty hard on him for his blanket jumpseat denials just for working for Virgin or JetBlue. Although I DO believe it was his daily complaining to the board's owner about my signature (two of his contradictory quotes) that got them to turn off everyone's automatic signature block.

I've noticed that Zonejumper isn't around either... I always thought they were a couple. Can't say I miss him, but I miss not being able to rag on him; he was too easy.

Bubba

More than a few Alaska pilots PM'd me telling me what a complete ****************************** Fubi is when he started telling me he was going to sue me.

The guy is a bad pilot who has serious issues.

(Whoops, looks like he is going to sue me again!)

 

[SWA Bubba]

I'm in DAL now and I can tell you that I've never felt more welcome than I have felt the last few weeks here. Its been a very good experience so far. The systems class does seem geared toward those that have flown 737 or have the type. 3 days of -700 systems and 1 day of -300/-500/-800 differences. Its a lot of information stuffed into a very short time frame. Several people have asked questions that to me seemed normal to my AT way of learning an airplane but it's considered "building the airplane" here. That said, my AT training was more in depth than any of the 3 type ratings I have from my previous airline. Have to recalibrate I guess. Knowing limitations, memory items, flows and profiles seem to get much of the emphasis at SWA. They also have what is called a NextGen PC study guide which outlines the stuff you need to know to pass the PC. So far everyone has been getting through just fine and I have no reason to think that would change. Keeping an open mind and leaving "that's not how we did it at AirTran" out of your vocabulary will be a big help.

Anyway, that's my take on it so far. YMMV.

Glad you're having a good experience. Hopefully someday, all of us will look back on this period and chuckle over a beer.

Bubba

 

[FIREMAN]

Glad you're having a good experience. Hopefully someday, all of us will look back on this period and chuckle over a beer.

Bubba

How meany rape victims look back and have a chuckle and beer with their rapist?

 

[humveedriver]

Time for this thread to die. Like our bitter feelings. Would be nice to see it go on a good note.

 

[ATLplt]

Glad you're having a good experience. Hopefully someday, all of us will look back on this period and chuckle over a beer.

Bubba

"Hey, remember that time when I had more years of service than all your 07 and 08 hires, and I got stapled to the bottom? Then my airplane (which I bid for seniority and QOL) was 'sub-leased' to our closest competitor, ensuring my commute across the entire country in order to hold a line for the last few years? Remember that? Haha! That sh*t was funny, huh?"