Originally Posted by
Burton78
When you think about it, UPT (Military pilot training) is somewhat of a "premier ab initio flight school" in it's own right. The soon to be military pilots also go through a stringent selection process. Then, after ground training and a couple hundred flying hours, military pilots (if they graduate) are then dispersed to learn to fly anything from F-15's B-2's, F-16's, C-5's, F-18's, KC-10's, KC-135's, etc. So in that respect, if it's vetted enough, I tend to agree and don't see why a true ab initio program couldn't work in the USA as well. However, not particularly pointing at you, but to compare a 2000 hour F-15 pilot with a 2000 hour civilian pilot is a completely different conversation.
Precisely my point.
Now to your second point: I would never put a 7000 he civilian pilot in a Fighter, Tanker, or some other C of F prefix aircraft and expect them to do better than a 500 hr military guy. They weren't trained for that type of flying; It's apples to oranges.