Aviation BS and Photo Thread

@Blackout14

 

Congratulations! Welcome to the SWA family. My mom is a manager in HQ and it’s a lovely company. I applied for a Flight Ops internship for the coming summer Hope you get based somewhere convenient!

 

Congrats! Now you can haul a whole bunch of 99%ers instead of a few 1%ers.

 

What path did you take to get there? Im still trying to decide if i want to pursue helicopters or go the airplane route. If i do choose the airplane route I was thinking about sone sort of pipeline program. Also concratulation on the job!

 

...^^^... Many congratulations to you and the family ... SouthWest is a class outfit too.

 

Helicopters. Airplanes are boring, especially the big ones.

 

Looking back if I could do it all over again I would have said screw the dream to be a fighter pilot (never happened anyway) and made sure I had my shit sorted so I could've done the Army's High School to Flight School program. Would've been able to blow shit up and actually see it.

 

Yeah, so far thats the hard part about being dual rated hahaha. I started my Aviation career for helicopters. Choose to get dual rated because I am not paying for it out of my own pocket. The pay is far better doing airplane work, this is what makes it hard.

 

Got an IPC knocked out with a CFII friend a few days ago since I’ve been out of the country. It’s nice to be back in the air!

 

Thank you!

I will try and do that. I am sure it will happen at some point.

SWA is an awesome company and I am proud to be a part of it.

Sweet! Good luck on the internship.

This is so very true. I am part of the 99% so it feels more natural.

Flying airplanes is going to make it easier to fly.....airplanes. Helicopters are super awesome and I would love to fly them someday, but if your goal is to fly for Southwest, or another airline, helicopters will likely make that journey a little longer. If you join the military and fly helicopters, you will need a little experience in fixed wing planes when you get out.

Thanks!!

Helicopters can be more exciting, I have to agree. I think of them as the motorcycles of the sky.

Mrs. Bowen is super excited. Having a schedule is seriously life changing. I may be gone more overnights, but I will be home more days of the month. I have flown 22 days a month on average of the past 6 months.

 

Already did the military for 8 years. That's how I got all of it paid for. I dont really feel like going back in though. I have considered it a few times. But my family always changes that feeling.

 

Cardinal VS hawk.





The cardinal won.

 

It took me a minute to realize the aircraft was the cardinal and not a tiny red bird immortalized in St. Louis.

 

How's the left seat cushion?

 

...^^^... The big money and bennies are flying the big fixed wing commercial birds. Don't see any rotary pilots making $250,000+ a year. Hospital medevacs, oil rigs, power line inspections and etc. won't pay the mega bucks.

. . . . . .

I do know a guy who is flying rotary on the big power lines for inspections and maintenance and he makes about $120K.

cleaning high voltage insulators

...^^^... I have seen them do this on power lines here in the past (procedures are a little different here) ... not a job I would want to do.

. . . . . .

...^^^... I am curious ... what that wing damage will cost to get fixed ?

 

That's a heck of a dent. Bet that was an exciting flight?

Did you duck pretty aggressively?

 

Ouch! Is that your Cardinal?

 

Negative. Not mine. It’s at the airport I work at. I talked to the pilot when he got back. Downwind impact. Just smoked the hawk apparently. Feathers all over the pitot static tube.