There is one big difference between a military and a civilian low houred pilot. The military pilot has been through an exhaustive selection procedure followed by intensive training before he is let out by himself on a routine task.
There were 16 pilots on my initial jet course and only 8 survived to reach operational flying. I was a combat ready helicopter pilot after about 700hrs (Chipmunk, JP5A, Whirlwind and Wessex 2) but still limited to being No 2 to a more experienced leader or participating, as a singleton, in the more simple tasks such as troop embark/disembark training.
The 80hrs quoted by the Apache pilot was in the Apache not a total.
I learnt alot in my first tour, made mistakes, explored the potential of the Wessex - we had about 5hrs of continuation training every month all without passengers!!
I feel for civilian pilots beginning their career but it is a hard world out there and it must be difficult for an employer to entrust his business to a low houred pilot unless he is using 2 crew helicopters.
However if you don't try you won't know what it is like to get paid for doing something that is so challenging, rewardable and enjoyable
HF