jwilliamsee,
I hear your point loud and clear on the whole debate of does that "1000 hour guy" have a leg up on the rest. Yes, he/she does, at the very least with respect to handling communications, familiarity with taxiing (hold short, active and the dangers of losing SA and avoiding runway incursions), and the basic monkey skills that go along with flying. But where they get caught up short, are the changes, or things they need to unlearn, or change about their flying habits. You don't fly a right base box pattern in the military, you fly a descending pattern from the 180 to the 90 and final. Hey, maybe not much, but add that to faster speeds (coming from that Cessna per se), flying the pattern quicker, and throwing in gear and flap transitions that aren't really the same in a Cessna. And god help me if I flew a wide pattern in the T34 during Primary, with those extended finals you can manage with a box pattern, nope, you need that tight rolling final at 200-300 feet up, and on centerline or getting there. Then youare money! And, you know what? I still stive for that in the P3...
Also, a civilian tower could give a **** less if I report my gear in the pattern, but in the Navy you better do it, or the IP might wave you off, after he failed your gear indications... DOH! Or worse yet, during an EP, you forgot to do the landing checklist!!
Then you get to the whole subject of emergencies, I seriously doubt (granted there are differing pilot training schools out there that you mentioned, I would expect Embry Riddle would have a squared away system vice the fly by night guy teaching lessons at the local air field) that throw emergency procedures at you the same way. When getting your PPL, did you do IGPs (instrument gas position reports) every 15 min? And go through a 1.5 - 2.0 flight going from high work, to outlying field, to another outlying field, back to the home pattern, and god help you if you got lost or missed a check point, or didn't fly with the correct power settings?
What about the briefs and the board diagrams before each flight, 30 min to an hour of one on one diagramming and systems explanations?
Also, how many guys with their CFI, PPL or Instrument Card have flown Form or Precision Aerobatics? VNAVs? I would say the playing field is quite level then in the syllabus.
Radio Instruments (RIs) are probably going to be money for those that are already familiar with them, but for a new guy like me, that is where I made my most aboves. A couple hours on my computer with the RIOT trainer, and practice practice practice, and I did well in that portion of the syllabus. Heck, by that time, most everyone should, or better be pretty darn comfortable in the plane and with checklists....
In the end, it is a rough load for everyone (yes, yes, guys blast through the program with 79 NSSs, and they might have had that 1500 hours and all the liscenses to go with it), but they still had to study and go through the same hoops, in many cases on an accelerated track! If you have those 1500 hours, good on you, you might just have been smarter than the rest of us in your preparation, but don't be surprised during selection when a guy with none smokes your NSS and gets the jet slot (or, -- cough --, P3 slot in MY case!!) ...
Oh well, my 2 cents...
oes the person training have at least the basic monkey skills, does the person have the right positive attitude(willing to learn), and does he/she have the motivation to succede and study hard.