Rise air

[careerpilot?]

I'm naive because I'm not in the airlines (yet), so my thoughts may not translate well.

But can't airlines just do what we do in the military - select based on merit?

Sit a board every quarter and go through the FOs that have the highest scores on their last (or last few) PPCs. Rank them, and offer the upgrades to the top performers first, and work down the list if they decide to decline (noone in the military declines, but I ack airlines have seniority to consider and not everyone may want to upgrade).

Once selected, we in the military put them through "PICUS," with a senior standards pilot, but with them making the decisions. Sounds a lot like PICUS. When they are ready, we run their upgrade checkride. Rarely do they not make it through.

Can't airlines do the same? Rank based on their performance, and those who are top performing, if they need PICUS, give it to them, and then upgrade?

I've even worked at places where those in training departments would wrongly evaluate potential upgrades on the poorer side, to have an excuse for denying them said upgrade. They would do this until they got to their buddy on the list and upgrade them.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

[Speedbrakes]

then you get recommended for the PPC that you’d have to pass with no more than 2 2s.

That's just a regular PPC.

It’s an already an absolute joke that you can pass a check ride as an FO with 5 2s.

The maximum number of twos an FO can receive and still pass is four. A fifth two would result in a failure.