Southwest Airlines:

[jay_the_pilot]

Hello all!  I just discovered the greatness of Project AI.  Being the pilot for Southwest virtual that I am, I figured I'd try it out on my favorite route, KLBB-->KABQ.  I'm a corny story teller, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.

I arrive at the Lubbock Terminal an hour early for my flight, which leaves at 8:05 (that's 7:05 my time, talk about EARLY!).  After going through the briefing process with my first officer, Mike, we're out the jetway and preflighting the cockpit.

After getting IFR clearance, I get permission to taxi and hold position on runway 17R, and I'm on my way.

Tower quickly clears me for takeoff.  I runnup the throttles, and feel the power of the big engines push us foward. (In the background you can see another Southwest plane, as well as a default AI plane.  There's gotta be a way to get rid of those >:()

As we ascend to FL275, I look through the window to see my home field of Clovis Municipal.  I think to myself, "If all goes well, I'll travel 200 miles away to Albuquerque, just to get in my trusty Cessna 152 I left there and travel 200 miles back.  Seems like a waste."

I turn off the fasten seatbelts sign and put my feet up for a quick nap.  I wake up hearing Mike report the weather in Albuquerque to the cabin.  "They're reporting broken clouds right now, but they should be fixed when we get there."  It's a good thing he decided to become a pilot instead of a comedian.  He already had us descending over the Sandia Mountains.

Approach clears us for the visual runway 21 approach, and I throw the flaps and gear down as we contact Albuquerque tower.

The VASI indicated me high, but I make one of my famous soft landings.

I taxi her towards the gate, and get a good view of a Continental AI plane (That is so cool I think I'm gonna pee my pants !  The tails of some default planes are in the background though !  I gotta gid rid of those.)

I shut down the engines and set the parking brakes as the flight attendants open the door.  I can finally fly the 200 miles back home to Clovis.

Coming soon:  Albuquerque to Sin City.

[jrpilot]

Great shoots...NOT so corny of a story....keep the pictures and the stories coming

[BeukStylez03]

Jay,

Great shots.  I love the blue Southwest livery.

Where can I visit the VA you belong to?  I am an avid watcher of "Airline!" on the A&E channel and I would love to fly their planes in a realistic setting of a VA.

Thanks and nice shots, again!

[Nexus]

Southwest has one of the worst reps in aviation - the pilots that is

Slamming aircraft on landings (that is good to a certain extent), taxiing in F1 style, rapid descents with speedbrakes to very low altitudes - and the list goes on.

SWA are real hot shot guys eh?
 ;D

[Silver1SWA]

In defense of Southwest and their pilots, hard landings are most likely felt on a 737-700.  I have spoken to many Southwest pilots about the differences among the 737 variants in their fleet and all have said the -700 tends to stick, or hit harder and takes a bit more effort to bring down gently.  Excuse?  I'll stay out of that one...haha

Descending rapidly with speedbrakes is another issue assosciated with the 737-700.  It has a much cleaner airfoil and therefore needs a little help slowing down.

But as far as the high approaches with last minute descents, or the fast taxi techniques...they are just hot shot pilots looking to save their company some time and money.  :P  

I must add...nothing about their flying is unsafe.

[eno]

[quote]But as far as the high approaches with last minute descents, or the fast taxi techniques...they are just hot shot pilots looking to save their company some time and money.

[Silver1SWA]

They are NOT risking any lives and they are not breaking any rules.

[Nexus]

I agree with Silver, they are not risking lives or flying unsafe.
Kinda like driving on the highway in 70mph instead of the legal 65mph

Every way to save some cash - the low cost airlines will find them, but they'd never break any regulations.


Are there any Autothrottles installed on SWA's 737 yet?
In my book about 737, it says that SWA opted to go without it  ???

[Craig.]

great pics.
Prob find alot of southwest pilots are Ex navy, which would also explain the hard landings:) as for F1 style taxi'ing  a ryan air plane did that in manchester a few weeks ago they went so fast and onto an active runway without clearance, a departing A320 had to slam its breaks on full to avoid hitting it. Just because the pilots for this low cost airline wanted to save a couple of minutes a day, they almost killed 150+ people I wont say southwest are like that i have never had the pleausure of flying with them so i dont know, but it wouldnt surprise me.

[jay_the_pilot]

[quote]Jay,

Great shots.

[Sam 400]

Great pics. It wasnt a corny story. Keep them coming. Sam

[Silver1SWA]

About 90% of my air travel history has been with Southwest Airlines.  I travel along the west coast a handful of times every year and I always choose Southwest.  Although I have experienced some of those interesting, exciting, and fun approaches, I cannot recall a time when we made an extremely hard landing, slamming down onto the runway, not even during any nasty weather.

Because Southwest's pilots like to make a somewhat higher and steeper descent, that does not mean they slam the plane onto the runway doing so.  Chances are, hard landings experienced on Southwest have no relation to their descending techniques and are no different than situations that might cause a hard landing on ANY airline.

It is true that in Southwest Airlines' 30+ years of service, they only have one blemish on their safety record and yes, that was the incident in Burbank California in which the aircraft overran the runway back in 2000.  Yes, it was linked to pilot error, but that was the only time they broke the rules and well, they payed for it.  

And please, lets not compare Southwest with Ryanair.  There just is no comparison...Ryanair has one of the worst reputations of any airline in the world for various reasons, and Southwest sits on top of the LCC world.  They are the ultimate LCC and their success is matched by no other.

[Craig.]

like i said i have never flown them so i cant comment. I just put an incident that happens when planes taxi too fast, it doesnt matter how good a company is, if the pilot makes the mistake. Personally i wont fly any LCC, not to be snobby, but i just wont:)

[Nexus]

I agree than Ryanair has a rather poor reputation, and rightfully so.
But I think Easy Jet could be a good comparison to SWA.

Easy Jet are enjoying great success, and has expanded immensely the last years, acquiring companies like Deutche BA and GO!

I only fly SAS though  ;)

[Daz]

easyjet do tend to throw their aircraft about a bit but its fun. there was a whislting sound from the door when i travelled to belfast from manchester which kinda worried me though. cant speak for ryanair although i love their livery