As a former Laker, I can attest to the the difficulty of the training. It's fast paced and there is not a lot of time allotted, especially in the simulator to repeat profiles or maneuvers. That being said, we had twelve in our initial class and eleven of us made it through. This was two years ago. The instructors were professional and had no desire to see anybody fail, but they were limited by the constraint of time ($$$ for the sim). The fact of the matter is that the majority of pilots, given the opportunity to hand fly an aircraft, without an autopilot or GPS, from VOR to VOR, can do it. Lakers do it day in and day out, and consequently develop a terrific scan. I think its a perishable skill and if you are not using it everyday, you lose it.