Good interview.......their pilots are are taught to fly hands on!

[jetmechjer]

Our pilots will get very upset if one autopilot is inop and will usually refuse the airplane if both are inop!!!
http://www.aviationtoday.com/reports/southwest.htm

ASW: What prompted you to make this investment in the HUD?

SWA: Initially, it has great safety value, but probably our initial look at it was for its low visibility capability. We’re able to fly Cat. IIIA approaches using the HUD.

ASW: And you can’t do that without?

SWA: Well, you can do that with autoland, but this fits nicely into our culture, where we really promote hand-flying the airplane. We develop our pilot skills not only with the number of segments we fly on a given day, but we encourage them flying the airplane and minimizing the use of automation. Using the HUD promotes hand-flying, so we can hand-fly this airplane down to Cat. III minimums – 700 RVR or 50 feet above touchdown. It takes a very high skill level, but it works very nicely into our culture and philosophy.

 

[Bob Owens]

Our pilots will get very upset if one autopilot is inop and will usually refuse the airplane if both are inop!!!
PLEASE DO NOT repeat an entire post just to add one line, especially when its the post directly above yours. Thanks.

In all fairness to the pilots there is a big difference between "hand flying" from NYC to BOS than NYC to LAX.

 

[Mach85ER]

"Our pilots will get very upset if one autopilot is inop and will usually refuse the airplane if both are inop!!!"



Somebody let their 12 year on this site.

The SWA guy is referring to handflying in descent and on departure until cruise altitude. The HUD enables handflown low vis approaches, AA 737's are the same. Not so on the rest of the fleet. SWA guys aren't handflying at altitude for extended periods of time.

No one gets upset if one is inop. There might be an issue if the destination WX is below the autoland limits with 2 A/P's versus 3. There are visibility requirements. With the new RVSM, there might be a requirement for a functioning A/P. MIA-GCM can be done without it, I have

 

[corl737]

The SWA guy is referring to handflying in descent and on departure until cruise altitude. The HUD enables handflown low vis approaches, AA 737's are the same. Not so on the rest of the fleet. SWA guys aren't handflying at altitude for extended periods of time.

The HUD, as you mentioned, is only vital to low visibility approaches. I was told that while a fully-automated autoland system is cheaper to install than a HUD, the recurring maintenance is a whole lot more expensive. Thus, SWA has the HUD. Besides, flying the HUD really jacks up the "cool factor" of the job!

I determine autopilot usage by how much traffic I have to be looking for. Departing westbound out of MDW and being held below the O'Hare's Class B airspace puts me in the direct path of VFR general aviation aircraft that are not being controlled by ATC. It's "autopilot on, eyeballs outside" just as soon as I can!

Going from Lubbock to El Paso? Hand fly the whole thing!

With the new RVSM, there might be a requirement for a functioning A/P.

There is.

 

[767jetz]

I was told that while a fully-automated autoland system is cheaper to install than a HUD, the recurring maintenance is a whole lot more expensive.

This is true. Autoland systems require a satisfactory autoland be accomplished every so often. If that currency lapses, mechanics have to do a lengthy (expensive) ground test to re-establish autoland currency. At UA, pilots are encouraged to monitor the autoland currency and perform autolands to avoid the ground test. These are usually done at the large hubs like ORD,DEN,SFO,etc.

I would imagine at an airline like WN, it would be much harder to keep the fleet current since much of their flying is done to smaller airports where autolands may not be authorized.

 

[jetmechjer]

Somebody let their 12 year on this site...........

Very nice, yet typical, response capatain Richard Cranium.
:down:
If you actually read the whole interview you would see as I did that it was pretty interesting. It made this 20 plus year Technician curious as to what arilines have LMP programs and to what minimums they can land for each of the approved programs. I could not seem to find the information on the FAA web site.
So ya see Richard I am not 12. I have had the pleasure of dealing with some "God like" pilots, such as yourself for over 20 years. Also had 4 years in General Aviation where the pilots in general are much more down to earth.
When I started with our company over 20 years ago, the general consensus among the mechanics was that about 75% of the pilots were down to earth. As of lately it seems to be 50/50 at best. This company is screwing all of us and you are not above us. The sooner all pilots realise this the sooner we can all work together to get our concessions back. We are all in this Togather!!

 

[Mach85ER]

It was a good article, thanks, but you are the one who phrased "their pilots are taught..." and put your lead sentence in bold type ref the A/P issues. Those parts are BS and that is what I responded about.