I guess I could have been more clear in my response. I'm simply making a generalization, not an absolute statement. There are a few reasons other than shortcomings as a pilot that IOE can take more time. I've even heard of people requesting more IOE simply to finish a month without having to sit reserve for the pro-rated days. That alone could mean an additional 25-50 hours.

But its a bit of a tough subject, because we must take ourselves and training very seriously. Right or not, training records are our only real gauge of the quality of a pilot. Someone who takes a lot of additional training, or has multiple failures in the past presents a big red flag to me (think Marvin Renslow). Sure, there are extenuating circumstances that could explain some of that stuff, but in general, multiple training failures, and excessive extra IOE can point to a pretty obvious conclusion of one's pilot abilities.