Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
Is there anyone who can speak on behalf of SWA (not .. I did it this way) who can put to rest what the hell the following means to USAF heavy drivers?
"**PIC for this purpose is defined as Captain/Aircraft Commander of record, not simply the sole manipulator of the controls. For military personnel, Southwest Airlines will allow flight time logged as "Pilot in Command" (PIC) only if you are the Captain/Aircraft Commander, Evaluator, or Instructor Pilot. Primary time will only be considered PIC on a specific aircraft after an individual upgrades to Aircraft Commander n the appropriate aircraft. Time logged as "Other Time" will not be considered."
Thanks.
I went through 2 successful interviews at SWA (us poolies had to interview twice). Here's how it works:
As a KC-10 guy, all of your PRI, SEC, and INSTR time since AC upgrade counts for your "PIC". Completely disregard the OTHER (especially when using the military conversion for your "Total Time"). It is up to you whether to include Eval time or not; I have heard convincing arguments both ways but you are never the AC when giving a checkride so keep that in mind.
Now you can really get into the weeds on some of these details, so be conservative and able to justify your numbers... if you do that, the logbook portion of your interview will be a non-event. After all, you have official documentation of your flying history in hand.
Some people also take an arbitrary percentage off the top of their PIC (a common cut is 10%), because there were times where you flew locals or augmented missions where you logged "Primary" but didn't technically sign for the jet as the AC on the orders. Since the AF doesn't track "AC hours", you would take this cut to be conservative. IMHO, SWA doesn't care. In two separate interviews, I was not asked one question about when I was the AC and when I wasn't. Also keep in mind that there were times that you were the AC on the orders but sat in the blue seats logging "Other" time - and you dropped every single one of those hours, right? Honestly, it all comes out in the wash. It is totally up to you whether you take a cut off the top of your PIC or not. (Anecdotally, I did not take an extra percentage cut but my good buddy did and we both got hired, for what it is worth).
Also, some KC-10 guys are careful to discount any of their time logged when doing their AC Phase II (D-level) training, since technically you are not certified as an AC yet for those two missions. Unfortunately, it can be tough to nail down a cert date that is a decade old. Being meticulous with your hours is a good thing and again I would be shocked with any questions about AC cert dates versus initial AC Form 8 dates.
Simply put, make sure your military conversion-added PIC, SIC (read:copilot time), and INST time adds up to your military conversion-added total time MINUS all OTHER time... just don't forget to take the OTHER out before the conversion!