That might be a little excessive. However, I know several people who went to the airlines and did not make it. Most you could have predicted due to poor skills or lack of knowledge that was evident to their co-workers. I know several others who failed their first airline checkride at the end of training and were given some remedial instruction and then another check which they passed.
One thing that happened to some I know in Chautaqua was that in training they were taught certain callouts and procedures, then during their check the 'Captain' they were paired with for their ride used different procedures because they were changing procedures used by line pilots at the time. This would have been a little unnerving to say the least.
I would be hesitant to recommend a course like that due to the cost involved. I will tell you that I recently completed a type rating course in a jet with a similar cockpit and it was difficult. The systems were not that big of a deal as I had made it a priority to learn jet systems and aerodynamics while I was a flight instructor. The FMS was also not that difficult for me as FSI provided instructors a 12 hr 'Short Course' in the SAAB 2000 level D sim they have at the Academy. It has Proline 21 avionics like a CRJ and I spent several days on a computer trainer using the FMS during the course. The big change was the 'glass cockpit' and the autopilot/flight director.
During the 2 week course that I attended I spent about 32 hrs in the sim prior to a 2 hr checkride. The time was spent equally divided between the left and right seats. The first sim was really a 'CPT' focusing on using the FMS. The next sim involved all the startup and preflight check procedures and doing stalls, steep turns and a few approaches. After that it was like doing an initial instrument rating with multiple approaches every sim along with all the usual rejected takeoff, engine failure after V1, single engine approaches, engine failure on the missed, system failures, emergency descent, etc.
During the training I never really got a good scan going on the glass. I could do steep turns and stalls ok, for everything else I just followed the flight director. Airspeed management is made much easier by using the 'trend vector', so there was not the need to memorize multiple power settings. I felt competent prior to my checkride, but I really only felt good during the last few sim sessions.
Overall the hardest task was learning to use the autopilot. There are multiple modes for lateral and vertical guidance. You must understand what each does, and make sure you look at the displays to always ensure that the correct mode is selected. I think one of the biggest ommissions in normal training for the initial ratings is the lack of autopilot training. It would have been nice to have some exposure to this prior to moving to larger equipment.
If you take the time to learn systems ahead of time, you could always make use of Microsoft Flight Sim to get some experience with using a 'glass cockpit'. At least you would have somewhat of a scan. You can also get some high quality add ons that have working FMS and autopilot equipment identical to real aircraft. This could be a cheap way to learn some things without spending $3000.
