Some fighter pilot squadron commanders get passed up too. No group has a 100% success rate, and every group has a few who didn't get hired who probably should have gotten hired. And that includes those who prepared well.

But its no secret that many of the SSP candidates (at least initially) walked in (ridiculously) thinking it was just a good old boy, buddy roe, "grin and grip" and that's just asinine.

Again, I never said that if you prepare well, you will have a 100% chance of getting the job. That's never the case. But if the average is around 2/3, and we know there are some who don't take it seriously and some who have attitudes, its safe to say that if you do take it seriously and don't have an attitude, your odds will be above the average.

As for the draining of pilots issue, there's two sides to that coin. On the one hand they need to provide an incentive to get pilots to go and stay there (for a while at least) and on the other hand they, like you said, can't just gut the operation instantly into oblivion. Also though, they want good pilots and good people to work with from all sources.

I'm all for a viable path from EDV to DAL, but its never going to be 100%. And no one is ever going to be "shafted" or whatever because they weren't hired by DL or anywhere else.

While no one knows what the future of this segment of the industry will hold, I think its safe to say there likely won't ever be a pure 100% flow at DL. But when you start out with a 2/3 success rate, and can increase those odds by preparing hard and having a good attitude, that's pretty darn good IMO.