I don't think his statement said, or implied, that the majority of applicants wash out. I think his statement was that the majority of those who do wash out, do so in the oral or sim. That makes sense, as there's precious little elsewhere that they could wash out.
A couple of months ago I went to a sim training center for recurrent on a particular type. I went down with an individual who has more time in type than I do, and is currently flying that type. We were partnered in the sim. For the oral portion, we were handed a series of questions and answers, and told that the examine would ask those questions verbatim, and that he would expect the answers that came with the questions we were given.
Pretty straightforward, one would think. One would think...
After five days, my sim buddy and I reported one morning for a session of ora interrogation...questioning. The examiner elected to visit with us both. He had the same sheet we had been given, and asked questions directly from the sheet, verbatim, just as we had been told. Now I had studied the material before I went. I studied it while I was there, as usual. I even did what I normally do; I made up 3X5 cards for each question each answer and drilled myself on them. I don't like to walk into a question and answer session and not be prepared.
My sim buddy didn't do this. I have no idea what he did, but he wasn't able to properly answer hardly a single question. He isn't stupid. He isn't a stranger to that airplane. But he barely limped through the oral, and ultimately failed the checkride. He passed several days later; he was given retraining and retested with a satisfactory grade.
Pilots who don't study or prepare, tend to fail. Yes, there's a lot of material. However, the company is expecting to hire professionals who behave as such, and who prepare and who achieve. If a pilot isn't interested enough in being prepared, and in meeting the requirements of the job then it will certainly show up in the training and evaluation program.
