I flew Tweets for a few years, including a period when IFT was shut down--so we were getting a lot of folks who'd never touched the controls of an aircraft. And the usual guys with tons of hours here and there. So here's my perspective--I've never seen prior time hurt anyone (other than folks walking in bragging about their ratings, "my technique," etc).

Up to the first check ride, there was a huge range of ability in the students. That's where the guys with prior time had a clear advantage. After midphase though, the differences cleared out. I had classes where the number 1 guy/girl was a zero timer and the last place guy had hundreds of hours.

So my point there, while I haven't seen prior time hurt anyone, I also don't think it helped anyone much either.

I wouldn't spend that much time/money on flying. If you just enjoy it, great, but don't expend those resources thinking it's going to help you much in UPT.

In your case, seems like you had some good concerns about UPT, and you spent the time/money investigating those phases of flight, gave you a good feeling, and some confidence. So that's money well spent. Don't know I'd keep doing it though.