Originally Posted by
Birdsmash
The Atlas training programs are not designed for the same set of pilots the regionals are targeting. If a pilot does not see themselves capable of flying a complex arrival into a challenging international airport at night in crap weather while managing the energy of a heavy jet, they have no business applying to Atlas. If the hiring board chooses to hire someone who built hours in a C208, barely finished OE in a B737 at a marginal carrier (now defunct), and then struggled through 777 training despite excess OE, that is a problem with the pilot and those that hired him. Some pilots have above average skills and learning capability that overcomes their lack of experience. Some do not.
Atlas training is not a guaranteed pass. It’s big boy/big girl training with ATP ACS standards as the “minimum acceptable”. I make no apologies for that. Not everyone gets a trophy buttercup.
LGAflyer makes a good point here. If we are hiring people at ATP minima, we can't claim to have a "big boy" training program; we have a poorly set up and poorly implemented one. If candidates need explanations about basic turbine theory and high altitude maneuvering, as basic as that is, that's what we need to teach. "Big Boy Training" is something we used to say at a previous employer where I wore some hats. That mentality just masked systemic shortfalls which we failed to fix.
Back to the 50% fail rate. Are we talking 50% washed out of training, 50% failed their initial type ride or 50% took an extra recommend ride or something? Big differences in those things. Anecdotally I'm not seeing the rain of failed transitions, etc. reflective of that kind of mess. But my sample size is small.