I wrote this over at the AA APA website a few days ago under the SWA Sim IP thread. I was there for 20 years back in the day…..
***************
’
After retiring early from AA (2008), going overseas for a decade and then coming back to US to finish my career, I hired at SWA as an FO. Early retire again with SWA offer due covid. After two years, decided I missed it and applied and hired around Sept 2022 for Flt Crew Training Inst (Sim IP) at SWA, as a part timer (10 days)! I thought it would be great, and so did all my classmates.
Now, logic would tell you that the work schedule would be 2 groups of 5 days on during the month for the 10 days…. two trips to the proverbial airport per month as commuters that we all were. Sounded great with that logic. As I learned more both before I went and after I got there for training, that logic was not being applied to our sked…. And after seeing a few random skeds of those ahead of us on the line so to speak, it was basically like…. 3 days on…. 4 days off… 2 days on…… 5 days off…. 3 days on…. Etc. Not commuter friendly at all. We made some comments about it during class when the higher ups would come into class… and they knew it, but either couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it.
Pay for us at last year was $4,500/month. Full timers at 20 days were $9,000/month Plus the aforementioned bonuses for part and full timers.
As time went by, I both heard of and talked to a few guys who were leaving the training program due to mostly the scheduling but also, two things that could bite you…. one being hotels and one being transport to the sim building.
On the hotels, at least last year, you would only get 10 nights paid at a hotel, so if you had a late sim and couldn’t get the last flt home, the hotel was on your dime. Transport to/from that hotel was on you… to find the way if the hotel didn’t offer it to/from the sim building. When you added this up each month, it was enough for guys to say no thanks. As I mentioned, this was last year and they may have changed it. Those were the two biggest reasons more than a few guys while I was there and before me, decided to quit.
I personally left there after 3 weeks for a few reasons: We weren’t really being trained after 3 weeks to be sim instructors… at all. Every guy in my class (11 of us) felt like we were “wallowing” and had no direction as to what to study. There really was very little if any guidance. Also, in my class there were two guys who were coming straight from the line at age 65 to the sim IP training. The rest of us had been out of flying for at least 2 years like myself while we had one guy who was 78 years old and was back. Sharp guy and just wanted to get back into it. He had been a check airmen back in the day. I tell you about him to tell you that…. we were to have 3 sim rides and then the Check ride…. After years of not even thinking about procedures, limitations etc….. I didn’t feel like that was nearly enough. Maybe Im the weak link in that but, I was not comfortable with only 3 rides and a check ride After two years of not seeing the inside of a 737.
I‘m not dissing SWA at all…. Super great people to work with there… just awesome!! But to tell you that there is a reason they are losing so many guys. I think the part time stuff last year was not thought through very well and they just didn’t really know what to do with us.
Anyways, thats my two cents, guys.