Face it. Dropout % is almost exclusively dependent on selection process. With
perfect selection requirements one would have near zero drop outs. When I went
through the NavCad program in the early 50s, one needed to pass a bunch of Navy
exams, be physically adequate, and have 2 years college in any major.
Admittedly the navy was hungry for pilots at that time, but I suspect the
overall dropout % was about 10%.

We didn't start out (after 6 months pre flight) in Piper Cubs. We started out
in SNJ/T6s -- in which everybody carrier qualified. The advanced *trainer* was
the F6 Hellcat -- the hottest thing the Navy had a few years earlier -- and in
which the single engine students all carrier qualified.

People really don't change, but selection and training procedures surely do --
as they should. Technology is dandy: selection and training are what counts.

Quent