I have heard that that American Eagle circa mid-2000's version (pre current version, Envoy/Republic/whoever is painted with Eagle colors) was very good

Is it true they used to purposely fail people to keep them there?

Mesaba was excellent, Pinnacle was horrible. Both are gone now, what's your point?

Just want to know for discussion purposes...this is an informational forum, isn't it?

It was, the envy of the industry (big brother budget to boot). I'm not really sure where, why, or when it went downhill. Changes in the FAA CMO office along with POI's didn't help. Cuts in funding didn't either. I also blame the FAA and TC manager for turning it into a "checking" center. Eagle was one of the last regionals to go AQP also, still hasn't completely switched over. Its sink or swim with every ride being career jeopardy and very little training to be had with bored embedded career examiners looking to entertain themselves. In other words, very unforgiving. There is a saying apparently at the larger airlines: if you can make it at Eagle, you can make it anywhere.

The old days they asked "have you failed any checkrides, except at Trans-States?"

I've only been at one airline but no complaints about the L-ASA training dept. Very knowledgeable guys that I feel are fair if you put the effort to study.

Absolutely true. As I recall, things started going south when we got our new APD's. When I left, the sim was backlogged 3 weeks because of all the unsats and people were busting for some pretty trivial stuff. I'm glad I'm out of there.

How is TSA training these days? Anyone recent care to expand?

Best training I have been through was Horizon. I have been through 2 regionals, 2 national sized carriers and 1 independent to get a type rating. Horizon was great for a first timer hitting the airlines. A friend recently went through and he said it was very long but they covered everything. Some others I did were self taught for the most part.

The best thing you can have is someone that knows the airplane inside and out. A former carrier (now out of business) had a guy that had 10's of thousands of hours on the equip and he could trouble shoot problems at 3 am over the phone, and give us ideas on how to get things working again with out the help of a computer or manuals. It sure helped always having a PFE/mechanic onboard! He taught the airplane so well he could practically build the damn thing (A-300)!