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Southwest Headquarters Tour

katherinemichel.github.io

21–30 of 106 posts

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#21
post #19

There appears to be a rope-like device on the emergency equipment training board (8th picture), with some bicone shapes. Anyone know what that is? Perhaps an escape rope for the pilots? EDIT: Yup, here it is in action: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7389569

Yes, that looks like an escape rope for pilots.

https://www.aviation-gadgets.com/photo/virgin-australia-boei...

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#22

I adore behind-the-scenes tours. I get there's a lot of work that goes into making it happen, but when you drop into a place where people work, you'll learn so much about real life problems that never make it to the Internet. The greatest tour I ever had was at the Smokejumper base in remote WA. At any time when they're open, you're allowed to drop in for a tour and whoever is there that day is obliged to give you on…

Remember, most fire stations will give you a tour, let you sit in the truck, etc, if you just pop in. They love to show off.

Source: My father was a 35 year veteran of the fire department in a large city.

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#23
I’ve toured the Lucid Motors factory a few times, and man, it’s incredible. Sometimes we forget that the things we use every single day take massive amounts of space, people, and technology to build.

We software people are spoiled with our keyboards and Red Bull :p

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#24

Being a "superfan" of a corporation is already kind of questionable, but especially so when its leadership has been steadily dismantling so many great customer-friendly things that distinguished them from the competition. I'm glad at least something like this has survived long enough for you to have a neat experience.

You could’ve just said, “I’m glad you enjoyed it!” or said nothing at all rather than lecturing her on your politics.

This is the internet; we don’t do “reasonable” here, apparently :p

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#25

I was given a similar tour of Qantas's headquarters, including a walkthrough of their engine workshop and the chance to roam freely inside one of their A380s that was parked up for maintenance. I took heaps of photos, I suppose if this stuff is interesting to others I really should think about sharing them.

That would be welcomed!

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#26

Cool, I was on a contract last year for their cybersecurity division and implemented observability and AI for their cloud environments. They have a few different cafeterias at the HQ in the different buildings and the SWA store but I never got to see the sim and pilot training areas.

That sounds awesome. They actually told us during the tour that many employees never see the areas we went to. It was pretty exclusive. As for different break areas, I loved that they had so much memorabilia around. I feel like I saw so many different scenes in there. I think I would have gotten lost in there if I hadn't had a tour guide!

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#27
post #19

There appears to be a rope-like device on the emergency equipment training board (8th picture), with some bicone shapes. Anyone know what that is? Perhaps an escape rope for the pilots? EDIT: Yup, here it is in action: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7389569

Yes, that looks like an escape rope for pilots. https://www.aviation-gadgets.com/photo/virgin-australia-boei...

I am glad you found that. Someone asked our guide, and I missed the explanation!

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#28

I adore behind-the-scenes tours. I get there's a lot of work that goes into making it happen, but when you drop into a place where people work, you'll learn so much about real life problems that never make it to the Internet. The greatest tour I ever had was at the Smokejumper base in remote WA. At any time when they're open, you're allowed to drop in for a tour and whoever is there that day is obliged to give you on…

Yes, field trips were always my favorite part of school. The "How its Made" show scratches a similar itch.

I've noodled with the idea of starting a "fieldtrips for grownups" group but I feel like a wastewater treatment plant is more likely to open their doors for a group of third graders than a group of thirty somethings.

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#29
A few years ago, I got a tour of Starbucks headquarters from a friend. One thing I didn't expect: it's literally filled with rooms where people just taste coffee, all day, every day, to make sure it's what it's supposed to be.

It's crazy how even something which feels mediocre so much of the time - fast-food coffee, a budget airline - requires an enormous amount of human effort to pull off reliably.

(And yes, you can dislike Southwest as a corporation and still think things like flight attendant training and plane simulators are cool. Come on folks.)

Re: Southwest Headquarters Tour

#30

I adore behind-the-scenes tours. I get there's a lot of work that goes into making it happen, but when you drop into a place where people work, you'll learn so much about real life problems that never make it to the Internet. The greatest tour I ever had was at the Smokejumper base in remote WA. At any time when they're open, you're allowed to drop in for a tour and whoever is there that day is obliged to give you on…

Yes, field trips were always my favorite part of school. The "How its Made" show scratches a similar itch. I've noodled with the idea of starting a "fieldtrips for grownups" group but I feel like a wastewater treatment plant is more likely to open their doors for a group of third graders than a group of thirty somethings.

That’s probably true but I wouldn’t count it out. I think you’re more likely to get answers like “we do 10:00 on tuesdays” (timed for schools) than “no”
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