Obviously this depends on where you work. Mesa is washing out 40-50%. Other airlines have 95% pass rates. One hires any warm body over the phone, the other attracts more qualified applicants. Hmmm.

Hey, I guess you don't mind the FAA implementing the MPL framework to create yet a 3rd class of pilots?

So mesa has a 40% washout rate?

Why are today's 1500+ hour new hires having any trouble at all in training? I thought the 1500 hours was supposed to deliver a more competent pilot to the front door of the airlines, wasn't that the intent? I was hired at 1300 with 700 dual given, not really all that much below today's mins. I am not super-pilot, but never required any additional training.

What is so different in the quality of the hours people are getting today?

Because when the well runs dry, they will take anyone. Serious aviators need not apply.

I would suspect it has less to do with hours, and more to do with an extended period of hiring from a reasonably small pool of applicants. For the last couple of years, pretty much anyone with the appropriate ratings could get a job at almost any regional carrier. The motivated people are always on the front end of things. The less motivated are also likely to be the less skilled.

There are many people that struggle with a faster paced training that is common now in compared to years past. When all students were 300 hour pilots, training was much slower and it was more about individual training. Now, with everyone at 1500 hours (and many lateral moves with guys coming in with 5000+ hours) training is faster paced and you are expected to be more proficient.

After 1500 hours in a C172, you are really not much of a better pilot than you were after 500 hours. Many pilots do not have any real world experience, and instructed to get all of their time. No turbine experience, no real cross country experience, no experience in icing/convective weather, no experience in complex airspaces (DC, NYC, LAX).

Let's talk about something else that's happening.

A friend who was a CFI at a big pilot mill school that flys a bunch of Seminoles and turns out garbage pilots told me that a group of his instructors used to just log flights (night, multi, and x/c) that other instructors were flying just because they hated the job that much and "seniority is everything", they "were ready to fly jetz".

Hmm, wonder why people are having issues?

It sounds like your friend might be from a certain flight school in the Pacific Northwest.

Oh, they were soooo bad. A bit strict about check-list memorization, not so much about flying the airplane.

But what good is 1000 hours of right-seating and fair weather flying anyway?