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Why B737 Type Rating now?

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tailhooker2112

New member
Joined
Jul 12, 2002
Posts
2
Hello to all,
This is my first post and I thought I’d try to put out some good info. I’ve been in the military for 12 years and got out at the most inopportune time- Fall 2001. I had the choice to stay in, but decided I wanted to fly commercially and postponing the transition was not an option. I got my B737 type rating in Oct of 2001. Interviewed with SWA in Jan and am currently swimming with a large crowd. Recently, I’ve also scheduled interviews with JetBlue and FedEx (pending). After reading all the advice on all the companies, I’m definitely convinced SWA is the way to go (for me, personally).
The point of my post is to convince all those fence riders who might be considering SWA to go ahead and get the type rating. My reasoning is if I had read this 2 years ago, I’d be flying with SWA today( and have 1 year+ seniority). The simple fact is there are 2 stacks of resumes at SWA, types and non-types. After the types get exhausted, they go to the non-types. Now before 9/11 (hindsight is always crystal) it would take 6-12 months to get an interview w/out the type and @ 2months with. Of course with the large pool, who knows when SWA will hire again and the type stack just keeps getting bigger. The fact they keep their expansion cards so close to home doesn’t help either. The reality is SWA will probably continue to buy airplanes and expand. As soon as they announce this, they’ll start hiring again. Don’t be the person (like me) at the end of the whip! I got my type rating at Higher Power Aviation (HPA) in Dallas, TX (972) 641-4661. I’m partial to them- I was extremely impressed with the professionalism of their course. After 12 years of carrier aviation and instructing (feeling “aviation-confident”), my type rating course blew me away. By far the hardest thing I’ve done in aviation due to the time compression involved. I was impressed with HPA being close to SWA and the extremely qualified and gifted instructors(some are SWA instructors or SWA pilots). I know some of their sim times used to be late at night, but the sim times are drastically improved since the Houston 737-300 simulator was moved to DFW. Now, HPA doesn’t use the midnight periods until they fill up the 737-300 and the 737-200 in the non-midnight periods. The 300 differences are not that hard (I did mine in the 300). With Southwest getting another 737-700 sim (another one coming), HPA has been able to get some 737-300 time from them. They were jam packed before. Guys who bust the entrance exam are only doing one additional day of ground training. Still important (and easy) to pass the test. Added additional classroom space together with executive chairs for each student. Enhancements to the ground school with Computer Based Training aids.
HPA won the US Navy contract to train all the Reserve guys on the C-40A, both initial and recurrent. The guys hang out with the classes, especially at the Ballpark lunch (free chow!) and it's a good opportunity to network. SWA continues coming over to visit HPA every Friday. HPA does sim preps for the airlines that are hiring and requiring sim evals. Day 1 is Pizza Day (free), Day 4 - Ballpark Lunch(free), Day 5 - Krispy Kreme(yea, baby!) and Southwest day (networking!).
It is true that the majority of all SWA new-hires in the past 3+ years are graduates of HPA. Many of the new hires are "pre-hires", that is they're hired and then need to go get the type. Some of these are less selective and go wherever is closest to home or whoever will cut them a deal. However, among the SWA wannabes who are not pre-hired (which is most), HPA trains the vast majority of these.
Now I would like to share my personal experiences at HPA but it has been awhile and I found this post that summed everything up very nicely. So all those SWA wanna-be’s please read and take heed. See "Why B737 Type rating now? Post 2"
 
Well,
Some people will never agree to work for SWA BECAUSE they require a type rating as a pre-employment condition.
 
whats the point?

tailhooker, wtf. was your post an advertisment ? do you want everyone to follow in your footsteps? cheerleader?
 
My reaction, exactly

I read both posts and found them to be interesting and informative. But, what's the reason for them?

For what it's worth, though, I've heard that the Phoenix outfit that sells 737 types is also top-drawer. I understand the guy who runs it is a SW captain. He has all the gouge. I also have read that it's a friendly mom 'n pop operation. Sorry, I don't remember the name at the moment but I know someone will chime in.

I appreciate Skydriver's point 100%, but if you want to play with Herb's ball you have play by his rules.
 
Last edited:
It's all good....

Relax, it's no big deal. If you neither want to work for Southwest Airlines nor get a 737 type, than ignore the post. I think tailhook is just trying to pass off some good info for those interested. I too had a very good experience at HP. No negative waves. The prehires there and current poolies make me envious.

Take care and fly safe,

BN
 
I know the provin track record of SWA is very tempting, but I would go with JetBlue or FEDEX if they called first. The track record of Needlemen is hard to pass up! FEDEX stability pay and aircraft are to hard to pass up. I would go to the first bidder!
 
The place in PHX is K & S Aviation
 

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