This is especially true when your airline fails people TWICE on your LOE - BACK to BACK. And then decides to wash them out. (I know at least 6, YES 6, people who this has happened to at PSA). They then end up going to endeavor, republic, or Mesa, and *surprised Pikachu face* end up being successful there, then going to the legacies without a single problem. One of them ended up ABX air and decided to stay put there. Many hiring departments like Southwest and Alaska do not even look at PSA failures as true failures, because they just know.

If you want to go to PSA, you should beaware!
 

PSA has a serious problem with their Training Department and Simulator instructors, especially in Charlotte! If you want your first pink slip, then come on down. Over the last week over (12) people have failed and had to be retrained according to actual pilot sources. I know that flight training is what you put into it, we all know how that goes. However, the guys that are failing I know at least (3 or 4) were already typed in the CL-65 and were Captains elsewhere and came to PSA mostly for the bonus money. The failures seem to be with inexperienced guys as well as very experienced 121 guys. The training is so weak in CLT that people are getting signed off for their check rides and are not even close to being prepared (but told by their instructors that they are) and are busting their rides left and right. I heard the FAA has been on-site recently also riding with sim check rides to figure out what is going on. The sim instructors seem to be in "two classes" and each paid different. There are line flying Sim Instructors and there are management Sim Instructors. The latter (Management Sim Instructors) are mostly guys that are disgruntled and mad at the world because they have lost their medicals or other issues and the management Sim Instructors only get paid "half" of what the Line Pilot Sim Instructors get paid. And as one will guess, there are far more Management Sim Instructors in the house than Pilot Instructors. Some say there is a conspiracy to fail guys by the different Sim Instructors just to make a point. I do not believe this is a believable explanation at all but I have several friends there and the failures are "multiple" per week according to them! That is a fact, and that can't be ignored! So, if you want to risk a "pink slip" or a "type bust" at PSA, please decide wisely.

This has been going on there for years. It's real and happens.

I have a CL-65 type, and have been flying a CL-604.
Are "JC", and others still there? Really don't want to risk it.

....
 

Thanks for the info----

scratches PSA off the list.

Honestly, I’d just skip it. Skip PSA. Unless we have a base that you really want to live in, I would recommend somewhere else. Another regional or even an LCC/major. I’m assuming your goal is a major? In that case just apply to the majors. You never know these days. They’re hiring like never before.

Thank you, great advice !

I’m so conflicted on what to believe. Have a class date with PSA in January 2024. I’ve had a couple pilots there tell me training has greatly improved, yet I still see reports online of people failing left and right for BS reasons.

I was at PSA for 7.5 years. Met JC several times, never had an issue. He's got some family reasons for not flowing, I'll leave it at that.

Never failed a ride or recurrent, and I'm not exactly Chuck Yeagar nor do I have the POH/FOM memorized, but I always knew how to find what I needed to didn't try to BS any examiner or instructor that was assigned to me. The trick to any sim event or recurrent is showing a little humility, a willingness to look up and not BS what you don't know, and above all let the examiner keep talking (because most of them like to hear themselves talk). You might even learn something, I know I did...... The bottom line for any of these events is be the guy that your examiner would have zero qualms about having their family fly with you.

A couple of things to keep in mind:
1. It does the company no good to spend close to 6 figures training a new pilot or Captain upgrade only to let some examiner with an ego trip bust them to satisfy their own blood lust or supposed thwarted career ambitions.
2. If, for whatever reason, you don't make it through PSA training blaming the company during your next job interview probably won't go well for you.
3. Since I started at the company, literally thousands of pilots have gone through the PSA training department without issues, and have continued on to other, more lucrative career destinations. Thousands. If you're the one guy that needs to whine about your experience on the internet be my guest, but again, there are literally thousands of other pilots who did their thing and moved on.

Thousands. What makes K so special?

One person's good experience does not negate others' bad experiences and vice versa. That's great you get along with JC and had no issues in training, but it's not the case for everyone, even people who work very hard and had no training problems before. I was set on PSA until I had two friends with direct experience tell me to stay far away. What they told me was very concerning. Now I agree that most regional training is very challenging, especially for someone jumping from a Cessna to a jet, but PSA seems to have some issues to work out.