DontFlyForPSA

They’ll Destroy your Career!


CJO from PSA Airlines? Interview invite? Don’t even think about it. Run the other way, ASAP.

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Join PSA Airlines Today – Where they hire bigots, murderers, creeps, and drunkards!

04/01/2023:

No further updates or posts to this website will be made, as I have completed training at my ULCC, flying the A320. My final comments, put very briefly, will be that the training at my new regional and my current ULCC was again, like comparing a pile of horse shit, and a pile of gold. My goal now is to join a legacy carrier such as Delta. I will leave this website up to serve as a warning for those wishing to join PSA Airlines. It will stay up indefinitely, until PSA fixes and completely revamps their training department, syllabus, and footprint, and boots those from the department who have no reason being there. I had absolutely no way of voicing my concerns to the department at all, so I had to rely on this website to have a voice. Deuces ✌️

I am K, this is my story. Over the course of a few years, I spent day and night trucking to save up money for flight school. Working 14 hour days, 7 days a week, I opted to pursue my dream career of being an airline pilot.

I left trucking after having saved up enough money to attend flight school. Including transportation costs, fuel, housing, etc. I saved up a total of about $100,000+ USD and a loan on top of it.

With this money, over the course of about 2 years, I earned all my ratings. After completing flight school, I spent a little over a year flight instructing and making my students the sharpest pilots they can possibly be.

I obtained all my required 1,500 hours to be able to get my ATP
(Airline Transport License) and get an airline job. I started applying to numerous airlines, but one airline in particular sparked my interest – PSA.

PSA was my dream airline due to its no-interview guaranteed flow to American Airlines. To my surprise, I was invited to interview shortly after submitting my application back in 2020. I was in complete shock and could not hold my excitement. I flew over to conduct the interview. I was nervous and felt sad after the interview thinking “What if it did not go well”? But, I got the CJO! I was really happy at the time.

What I knew before accepting the CJO was that PSA did not have a very good training program. I’ve heard horror stories on the internet about very high wash-out and failure rates. I remember reading about 30% requiring extra training and failing something at least once between the KV/MV/LOE, and another 30% washing out. Other users posted that this was non-sense and if you put in the work, you will pass. It is an AQP program after all, which would be almost impossible to fail, right? WRONG. I decided to give it a try, and thinking “This is non-sense. This cannot possibly happen to me, I study hard, work hard, and I will succeed!”. Signing that CJO was the biggest mistake of my life.

PSA’s AQP is not the AQP you think. You might be thinking AQP of Envoy, Endeavor, Republic, Piedmont, or Skywest. PSA is on a whole other level.

Fast forward a few weeks, I started indoc at PSA in Dayton, OH. The first week went smooth, no surprises there, other than you can tell the training department was very disorganized. A bunch of stuff on company benefits, etc. Week 2 and 3 was systems week. You sit in a classroom where a ground instructor teaches you about the systems of the aircraft. No surprises there as well. Although, they went too in depth on systems and gee-whiz stuff that you don’t have to know for your KV and would not benefit you at all in flying the plane. Week 4 was PVAL. Where you sit in a touch screen simulator and learn the company procedures, flows, call-outs, triggers. This is where most of my class had problems, about 70% did not get to take their PVAL test because they weren’t ready enough. This is mainly because two specific instructors there literally failed everyone that they were examining. Oh well, they got the extra training and ended up passing.

Next up, was the mock KV. Mostly everyone passed there as well. A few people did not know much and deservingly did not pass the Mock KV. However, they ended up passing as well after some extra training. Dayton was great because they had a training manager (Ed) there who takes no shit from anyone. He WANTS us pilots to pass and deals with any negative instructors/examiners accordingly. Now that that’s done and over with, you get assigned a sim base in either Charlotte, Cincinnati, St. Louis, or Atlanta. I ended up in Cincinnati.

This is where everything starts to go to crap for people. That great training manager (Ed) at Dayton has no power from now on.

KV, no problems there for anyone that I know. Just study and now your stuff. I had a fantastic APD who conducted my KV, very nice guy. You then do multiple sim sessions in order to take your MV. I had some fantastic instructors (Maybe just one out of the 10+, YES 10+ instructors, was bad) along the way, some of them were hard-asses and for good reason. They WANT you to pass and be sharp pilots. Thankfully for me, I had a great instructor who signed me off, and an examiner who understood we are still new pilots and don’t have line experience. I completed my MV successfully, I did mess up just one thing, but was allowed to repeat it. We are new pilots, and there cannot be perfection in your first examination afterall. I did not suck, but I was not PERFECT either. I was at tears of joy when I passed. The problem with the MV is that it totally depends on the examiner you get, and how strict they are. People other than myself failed the MV for very petty and dumb reasons, and almost 100% needed extra flight training. I remember one person failed because the simulator gave an error that it wasn’t supposed to.

Fast forward a few days, I went to do my LOE. Only one LOFT session does not at all prepare you to take the LOE. During the LOE, there were many things I was never taught, and that was expected on the LOE. I ended up failing my LOE because of something I was taught to do, and the examiner said it was wrong to do. Multiple things, that is. The last thing that ended the LOE was completely dumb and questionable, and even my seat support agreed. From that point, I was asked to leave PSA, which I did. The LOE is where the MAJROITY of students fail/washout.

The main conclusion here is that, you will be successful in Dayton thanks to a great training manager there. But, once you get to sims, you will have at least one 121 failure on your record. Possibly 2. Then you will either make it to the line with these failures trailing you for life, or be asked to resign from PSA (most likely the latter). The MV/LOE is all about if you have a good examiner or not. PSA is riddled with examiners who are lifetime CRJ pilots who are jealous of the opportunity there is today. They had DUIs or multiple checkride failures and cannot move onto the majors, so the only thing they can do, is become an APD and use their ego against people trying to start their career. If you have a regional lifer as your examiner, you can kiss your pilot record goodbye. Not only that, but the examiners are bias and choose favorites. I know many pilots who should never had gone to the line end up going to the line, and pilots who had fantastic skills fail their MV/LOE. If you have an APD who is looking forward to their flow or application to other jobs, you will have a better chance, as they are more understanding to new pilots. Even those that did pass did not have great things to say about PSA’s training. To sum it up:

  • Significant failure rate. You are bound to fail one (or two) events between the MV/LOE and possibly make it to the line with failures on your record, or just be asked to resign. Even those who make it to the line end up failing either recurrent or captain upgrade (most definitely will, the captain upgrade class during my time I was there, 50% failed the checkride. YES, one out of two people failed!).
  • Inconsistent training in sim. Different level of expectations, different techniques taught, subjective standards. You will have at least 10 different instructors for your sim sessions, all telling you to do things differently. Then when you take the LOE, the examiner will say “You’re not supposed to do that!”
  • Huge variation in level of difficulty on orals / checkrides. You either have a regional lifer as your examiner, or you don’t. The lifer’s are bound to fail you more. And with examiners picking favorites, being biased, this is not the airline to attend.
  • Lack of being able to use CRM during checkrides. You’re put in the right seat, and the examiner tells your seat support to not help with anything. They are completely silent the whole checkride. Not only that, but these seat supports tend to make many mistakes which then goes back to hurt you.
  • REGULARITY – The biggest issue at PSA.

I had great instructors at PSA, they aren’t the problem. Even a few APD’s and LCA’s were fantastic to talk to and I have the pleasure of being examined by them. What needs to be fixed is the rouge APD’s. In order to get through PSA training with no failures, you’ll need a ton of luck. Yes, you do have to put in the hard work, but even if you do, you might end up with an examiner who JUST wants to fail you because you probably did not shake their hard hard enough, or shook it loosely, or you looked at them the wrong way, or they woke up in the wrong side of the bed that day, or they mis-understood your body language or tone, or they just don’t like your skin color or ethnic origin. I’ve seen people fail here for the most questionable reasons, and stories float around.

On a final note, I’d like to point out Joel Cress as the APD who is a racist, raging-alcoholic bigot who should not be examining checkrides. He was arrested on 09/11/2001 in Ohio (yes literally that day) for going on a public racist drunken rant against Muslims on 9/11 (Athens City Police, September 11, 2001 – Case #2001CRB02360CREJOE). Not only that, but he was arrested again in 2014! For breaking and entering a liquor store and stealing a bottle of alcohol in the Carolinas! (July 14, 2014 – Case #2302014IF70549) How is a person like this, with POOR judgment allowed to be a pilot, let alone an APD Examiner? With multiple arrests, divorces, domestic violence incidences? Who fails multiple minorities? I believe PSA/FAA should yank his license away for sure.

After resigning, I fell into a state of depression. I lost my dream job, I have a loan to pay that I am unable to do so, I bought a home under mortgage when I was hired at PSA which I cannot pay back, I lost all my savings, I am on foodstamps, and not eligible for unemployment. I lost my only source of income. My previous job will not take me back, and I’ve been applying to pilot jobs for the past months, and no one wants to pick me up because of this failure. PSA ruined my entire life. I should have listened to the people posting about the failure rates on the internet. The horror stories are TRUE. Now, all the hard work I spent to get here and all the money spent was for nothing. I will not give up, but the main purpose of this website is to warn other before they fall into the same depression hole as me.

Dont fly for PSA. The training is horrible, not standard, bias, disorganized, and has a ton of other issues that needs renovation and revamping ASAP, like Piedmont did. Piedmont also had training issues, but post-covid, they completely revamped their training. Until that happens, go to Endeavor, Mesa, Republic, Piedmont, or Envoy for their fantastic training quality. You’ll thank me later. Avoid PSA like the plague. I hope my story reaches out to those who were thinking of coming here, I do not want the same thing happening to you, that happened to me… and many others on my watch while under the PSA training department.

10/08/2022:

I was able to be picked up by another airline! I passed their training program successfully and flawlessly! And trust me when I say this, the training department was a BLAST! 100000X Better than PSA’s crappy training department. I cannot emphasize this enough. I JUST CANNOT, CANNOT, CANNOT. IT IS A NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE. Fantastic ground instructors, simulator instructors, APD Examiners, and even co-workers! Everyone there just felt so proud to be there, and the support amongst ourselves was tight-knit like a family. You just cannot compare the two. It’s like comparing a pile of horse shit, and a stack of gold. I am so happy at this new airline, it just blows PSA out the water!

I have now completed IOE, and am flying the line on the ERJ 175! There is still not one day where I do not have nightmares of failing out of my dream airline. I will try to put it behind me and move on. This site will serve as a warning to those thinking of joining PSA.

Blue Skies & Tailwinds!

12/28/2022:

After obtaining about 265 hours of turbine time in the E175, I am trying to move on from my regional. I’ve interviewed in numerous places and hit roadblocks here and there. It seems that when I tell them the 1-2 things that ended the check-ride with our man Joel Cress, they don’t believe me, simply because of how minor and stupid the reasons are. They just cannot believe it, even I cannot believe it. This is a common theme among failures at PSA. Failing for minuscule things, things that you would’ve otherwise known on day 1 of IOE or been a debriefing item. This is why I urge everyone to seek out another airline with a better training department as stated above. The FIRST thing you should be looking for in a regional is the training department, then the base, then the pay and contract. Learn from my mistake, because I do not want anyone to go through what I did. If you want an American Airlines wholly owned, seek Piedmont or Envoy.

I am very happy at my regional airline, and do not mind building a few hundred more turbine time here before applying again to the airlines, just to prove to everyone that failures at PSA are mostly BS. I will keep you guys updated on my endeavors! I hope to apply again in a few more months. And for all those who also left PSA, do not give up, there is hope! Some words of wisdom I always told myself throughout this ordeal, “You did NOT fail, the training department failed YOU”.

02/10/2023:

I’ve officially moved on from my regional airline. I am now at an ULCC as of last month. Thanks for visiting everyone!

04/01/2023:

No further updates to this website will be made, as I have completed training at my ULCC, flying the A320. My final comments, put very briefly, will be that the training at my new regional and my current ULCC was again, like comparing a pile of horse shit, and a pile of gold. I will leave this website up to serve as a warning for those wishing to join PSA Airlines. Duces ✌️

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54 responses to “”

  1. Joel Cress failed everyone in my class in 2017. Biggest asshole I’ve ever met in aviation. Says a lot that he’s still there. He broke into the pool bar at a hotel in Jacksonville also. He was banned from flying the line at PSA so he just takes his anger out on failing every student.

  2. I can attest to this. We had 1/3 of the classes from January 6th and January 20th pass. One fucking third! The other 2/3 failed. Most of us have all gone on to other places and gotten new type rating or our ATPs, but that record will live forever. Thankfully, this isn’t the 2000s and these things can be over looked with sometime and work. I’m hoping 3-5 years before a major will look at those of us who failed and learned to do better elsewhere. I am very happy to hear that you got out of that shit hole! Here’s to going further on and further up!

    Cheers my friend!!

    • Don’t fly for PSA if you are part of the diversity, they hate people that look different, recently in my class 3 guys were washed out, just because of the way they look very racist company.

  3. I had the say experience that you at that place it’s the worst they make it doubt about my self and my skills

  4. Man, you did everything right since Trucking I bet you shoveled snow and delivered newspapers well I don’t think that happens Much Anymore maybe cut grass. And to lose it all after bobbing and weaving through the gauntlet by some jerk off so definitely not have happened. Door slammed did you approach his superiors or write a letter to a department head with your concerns. Or something like that would fall on deaf ears. I am so glad and actually proud of you for making it to the line. I’m just a private pilot with 40 years experience. Flying for the airlines was my dream job and after keeping the best grades and athletic letters in school I was appointed to the Air Force Academy and during my physical for flight Cadets I washed out with a color vision problem broke my heart still think about it today but I recovered and served my country for 20 years and now I work for one of my brothers companies making really good money and it’s a stressful free job. Guess it works out for some of us in the end. Good luck with your career

  5. @you’ll never know – Wow, I was in one of those classes and can confirm, So weird to see someone else out in the wild!

  6. I was there and had a similar experience. Sounds like it is too common.

    Makes me wonder if there will be a class-action lawsuit over damaging so many pilots’ records.

  7. Thank you for posting this. I had the same experience with the examiner Brian for my MV and LOE. (I forgot his last name) I heard recently that he was taken off checkrides for a short time and threatened his job if his failure rate stayed as high as it was. He is once again back to administering checkrides at PSA. Luckily I was hired by mesa soon after and after a few years, I am currently at a Major Airline.

  8. Thanks for posting. Same experience. Totally destroyed my confidence in my ability, and I will never even try to fly for an airline. As bad as it was for you, and I know it was bad for you, It’s even worse for retired military guys. The worst part is having to explain to friends, family, mentors, and my employers that I’m a good pilot, and a safe pilot, but didn’t meet the subjective standard at PSA. DO NOT go anywhere near PSA if you want to fly for a living.

  9. I was there when this $hit$how of a training dept was washing out students left and right. I know folks that called in sick when JC showed up on their schedule. He got investigated…sent back to the line for a while and a month or two later Ol’ SS got canned as head of training. JC had the highest failure rate of military pilots in the department, failed for items that were typically debrief only. I feel your frustration as I made it by the hair on my chin. My friends received emails from SS when they would get back to their hotel rooms that said thanks, we’ll take your resignation in the am, your extra sim slots are canx. Spent shy of 3 years there and got the heck out to a more rewarding and better paying job. I also discourage my pilot friends or acquaintances from going there.

    • SS #1 not to be confused with SS #2 that took over flight standards right after. #2 was great, taught my upgrade class and he went on to do good things for PSA. The running joke was there was a good Scott and a bad Scott.

  10. Yes even in 2022 they never learned. Joel Cress is just ruining careers knowingly or unknowingly. Everyone I asked said the same during his evaluation or checkride Captain tends to make mistakes and you’ve to figure it out. It is not a CR management type evaluation. It is like he will ask you to skip QRH for emergency procedures and let Captain to do quick version of it then will fail you for Captain not doing QRH properly. How management allow this and waste lots of money just train students to fail by these examiners. There should be better FAA recheck for the APDs and instructors. Tbh it was a great training till you hit Joel Cress. He would tell he fails pilots coz of bad training at PSA and its a batch of pilots. I would say it is not the bad training it is the bad evaluation and management wouldn’t listen to you. THEY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND EVALUATORS/EXAMINERS ARE ALSO VULNERABLE TO MAKE MISTAKES. They should include a feedback/remarks form for the evaluation and give a better training structure.

  11. Management needs to wake up. They spend lots of money for the training for new hires but not really train and standardize evaluation/checkride. I have heard many stories about Joel Cress while in training and outside. He has a bad reputation. Why do you put someone with lots of negative feedbacks as an evaluator?. So management doesn’t care about new hires. There is no effective feedback or remarks session that new pilots give effective feedback on evaluation. To give a picture of his evaluation, he skips QRH for emergency and asks Captain to do a quick version of it. And the Captain/Instructor always make mistakes if you don’t find out what mistake he did you fail. This is not a single incident, in his evaluation Captain often makes mistakes. And he would tell you that he doesn’t like training and often batch of new hires make mistakes due to training. I would say that is his ego. There are many wonderful instructors but overall it is a company that wouldn’t care for your struggle, career, dream and successful. This is just my personal opinion. Always remember nobody get to decide your future but only YOU. SO DON’T GIVE UP.

  12. ….PSA sucks… that shouldn’t have been news when you started. Last time I checked this is the hottest pilot hiring market in the history of aviation. I know everyone wants to be a hero flying shiny jets but the reality is there are plenty of other jobs that pay the bills, treat you well, etc etc. I mean… I am a lowly turboprop pilot operating 135 but I own my own airplane and am building a kit plane in my garage (of the home I own, no mortgage)… I wish more people who join this industry actually learned the business side of it, and the history… instead of creating some one dimensional dream that revolves around going to mainline…

  13. Cress won’t go to mainline because he has a red slip waiting for him. Agreed, worst examiner at an airline I’ve ever experienced by a long shot. The good instructors will tell you to call out sick for a Cress event.

  14. Would you be interested in publishing other peoples stories similar to your own? I made it into IOE before I was asked for a resignation without any explanation!!!! It’s been 11 months and to this day I have absolutely no understanding as to why my career had to come to an end. But due to a similar experience in simulators as you described I am no longer marketable to a single airline! I have copies of all of my training records I’ve shared them with many friends throughout the industry as well as a very detailed summary of my entire training history…. The second to last line check airman that I flew with I spoke to after I was asked for a resignation he said that he had never been consulted about my capabilities. He also indicated that nothing about our trip together was concerning in regards to my capability nor did I stand out as an exceptional pilot either just average.

    I have been so enraged over the way that I was treated at PSA and how their decisions have ultimately ended my career I wish there was someway to hold them accountable! I feel like the only way that’s possible is for people with similar stories to come together and to get congressional eyes looking at this meltdown shit show of a company!!!!

  15. I am glad to see this story. Aspiring airline pilots need to know this. I was not willing to be a whistleblower after my experiences there although I had plenty of information. They had systemic problems.

  16. LOL. I’m AT PSA…. I could talk about Cress or WHY he got condemned to the training department instead of getting fired, or even what happens AFTER Cress (he’s not the only one, by the way – ask about Andrew Wade, Chief Pilot, and why he should be fired. (And if you’re an American mainline pilot, why you should fire this asshole while he’s on probation)). When I move on I’ll tell you what I think. BE SMART ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO READ WHAT WASN’T SAID IN THE LAST TWO SENTENCES…..::

  17. Joel Cress has been a dick since I was there in 2014. PSA should be ashamed of themselves for having this guy representing them!

  18. I applaud you for your persistence, resilience, and bravery. Situations like these NEED to be called out bc without you vocalizing where they went wrong, companies will never change and most people will just accept it as an unfortunate casualty.
    I’m glad people like you exist ❤️

  19. So, where are you flying now? I feel you should let us know, mostly after exposing shitty PSA.
    Or let me know privately

  20. Had similar experience.. passed the MV with no repeats and did not pass the LOE at first attempt. Luckily I was able to obtain an additional lesson and pass at the second try. Now, I am working for one of legacies and I’m glad I switched. Training is totally different and they want your success.
    PSA training was a nightmare.
    Thanks for sharing. Good luck for your future

    • @None of your business, wrong person + this website does not condone doxxing of personal private information. Please avoid this when commenting in the future. Thank you.

  21. I didn’t make it through either. Went to Air Wisconsin because they were willing to take a chance on me. Their training is totally opposite of what I expected. The instructor went above and beyond to get me ready for my ride. (Ironically his first name was also Joel but he was a very pleasant person, quirky, strange sense of humor and a good instructor) My APD was also a regional lifer, but he was very fair on my checkride. He knew I was nervous but was able to put me at ease. I passed with flying colors. If anyone wants to come to AW, put in the work and they’ll get you through successfully.

  22. Unfortunately I was another victim of this inconsistent POS training department. I should have listened to everyones warnings. Now I have to deal with this garbage on my record. Heed the warnings, don’t go to PSA.

  23. Sounds exactly like what SkyWest’s training dept has fallen to as of last summer(2022), almost word for word. Remove PSA, insert SkyWest, the instructors / APD’s names and the shoe fits. Anyone reading this, avoid PSA AND SkyWest like the plague. I would literally suggest Mesa over those other two dumpster fires. 1st hand experience.

  24. Joel Cress is abject trash. He’s there for 3 reasons. 1) He’s scared to death to flow, he’s tried to fuck over so many mainline pilots he knows what’s waiting for him, payback, so he hides at PSA. 2.) He’s psychotic- a dangerous narcissist to say the least. His unbridled ego and his known dislike for anything in your background and/or demeanor that rubs him the wrong way guarantees a failure. 3)He knows he won’t get hired ANYWHERE once he’s gone. His criminal record and charges are now public knowledge.

    If you’ve been a victim of Joel Cress, SUE PSA, file a civil claim in Dayton, OH and it’s time the company be held accountable for their gross negligence and corporate apathy. Once you file suit you will go into discovery, all of the HR complaints against Joel Cress are on file in Dayton, and they are Discoverable- not only that, his record of who he’s failed and the metrics of his failures are on file with the training department, which means you will subpoena that evidence and deposition each and every one he’s screwed over under oath. Don’t let them destroy evidence, it’s there, and they will likely try. Joel has been “disciplined”multiple times within the company for the same behavior.

    They will likely try to settle to avoid the case going public and offer you a small six figure amount in return for non-disclosure- ask me how I know.

  25. B.H. is to be avoided at all costs. Training was abysmally inconsistent with far too many cooks in the kitchen. Techniques taught in training were in opposition to some of what took place on the ride. My sim partner and I absolutely felt that we were set up to fail from the moment we walked in for our M/V. Seat support totally useless and zero CRM allowed on the ride. Made no sense. Enormous disconnect with information needed for successful KV vs. gee-whiz B.S. being harped on by one particular ground instructor who liked to bring up his background flying fighters. Horrible experience at PSA and my sim partner and I were not alone in it. B.H. failed me for debrief items. Resigned, moved on and have obtained multiple types with zero issues since then but still have to deal with this garbage on my record. I can’t see how this place is worth taking the risk on. The failure that has a likely chance coming out of it could set a person back for years if they are not lucky.

  26. Every single word, that has been said here is true!!. This Company will destroy your career. This is not the AQP that you expected , is hook to catch people to be washed out.

  27. All this ALPA, pilots are destroying this Company and they will go against new people in order to keep their privileges ! Training department is a nightmare…DON’T FLY FOR PSA

  28. I was there a couple of weeks ago, the same experience washed out. Do not fly for PSA, they will destroy your career.

  29. I am just the next one of the long list, just washed out by this company…DON’T FLY FOR PSA, they will destroy your career , every single word that has been said here is true.!!!Don’t let them destroy your dreams…

  30. If you accept the “bonus” and you sale your soul to this devil, and don’t stay forever you will have to returned in full! Even with the taxes that they already discounted and be ready to receive threats from “Management “ The training in this Company is pretty bad and bias when you start the system integration, the lifers in this regional which are a bunch of losers will try to destroy you with all means. DON’T FLY FOR PIECE OF SH.. AIRLINES.

  31. Don’t even think about it. Flying for PSA, your live will be miserable! The lifers here are so jealous of the new payment rate for Direct Entry Captain or High Time FO, they will do all possible to fail you. Then guess what, you have to return the Bonus even with taxes that you already pay.. and then you will have to wait one year to take the taxes back! In my case I had to get a loan to pay this Piece of Sh.. Company because they have all the power in OH and lawyers to threaten you!! That’s the true. I reach out the President of AA and for sure this Company will be out of business soon!

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