vector4fun
"And for what it's worth, while I respect and appreciate the professionalism of ALL major airline crews, it IS a well-worn perception amongst us controllers that SWA crews in general are more willing to do the "unusual".
Just because a crew is very capable of doing the unusual, it is the professional crew that takes the passengers comfort and safety into account and declines. This in no way reflects on the ability of the crew to "max perform" the aircraft in a slam dunk or whatever you consider unusual, but it does reflect on their maturity and professionalism. Just becacause a controller asks you to do something has nothing to do with what should actually be done. All too often crews attempt to do things controllers ask that should have been declined right up front.
As I understand it, commercial aviation is essentially going from point A to point B. It is not max performing an aircraft to the edges of its envelope which commercial airliners were never designed to do, especially and most importantly with passengers on board.
Vector4fun, I would be interested in what "willing to do the unusual" means.