FAA approves Southwest

Nothing better than a little more competition.

Depends who you’re talking to.

Adam

I can’t wait to hear them on an oceanic radio frequency. They better offer some lessons in proper radio phraseology.

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Our ETOPS training program is being developed entirely (from what I have seen) by current pilots who have prior ETOPS experience. But of course there is a learning curve for any airline deciding to add ocean-crossing to it’s route (same as United or Delta or any major would’ve experienced when it first began those routes).

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Jordan,

You guys will be fine ETOPS wise, really no biggy, but we do have bets how long it’ll take before you land “LONG” in LIH :wink:

Adam

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Nah, they have SNA down pat, short runways shouldn’t be a problem.

Jordan, what I meant was that pilots who have only flown domestic generally have very poor radio communication skills. There are a lot of phraseology shortcuts that FAA controllers tolerate that oceanic radio operators will not. This is a learning curve for all of us when we begin flying oceanic.

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And that’s why there’s CPDLC!

Adam

That’s exactly what I was saying. I’d imagine there will be a part of training focused on phraseology but of course there will be a learning curve.

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Well we HAVE seen much shorter than that. My first day of IOE was the same day as the somewhat recent BUR incident. Needless to say I received many worried texts hahah

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C P D L C!!!

Adam

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My advice on that is to listen to the radio operators and speak the same way they do. They rarely cut corners, although San Francisco Radio is a little more laid back than our friends that control the Atlantic.

Good thing I don’t plan to do ETOPS - I grew up in ORD where a call sign was all you needed. I’m with Adam - CPDLC!

Do you know if Southwest is going to have CPDLC?

We’ve had CPDLC for quite a while now.

I always forget about domestic CPDLC, the Airbus fleet at UAL is still stuck in the nineties.

Ha well our experience is still mostly limited to departure clearances. Very few sectors domestically are active enroute, but we’ve gotten to experience it a bit. I’m sure oceanic will be entirely new. We did a day of ETOPS in initial and got a taste of it but we will have dedicated crews and I’m sure the training will be much more intensive.

Seriously transpac CPDLC is the bomb! You log and no need to speak to a soul till HCF center 5hrs later. Only downside is when it’s out it’s practically an emergency :wink:

Adam

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