Thanks Wrongstuff.
Maximum
No-one spends 1000 hours poling a Cessna! Everyone who gets those sorts of hours before flying jets (and I humbly submit my case - 950 hours fixed-wing) has some sort of a job to do in the aircraft. In that job he learns not just command skills but often crew co-operation - either as an instructor (who is monitoring pilot for a lot of time, and it becomes instinctive to point out important errors, and take over in extremis but not too early) or in small multi-crew aircraft. Instructors also learn a lot of airmanship, which is more than half of flying any aircraft. They also learn very good handling techniques (apply to all aircraft), as they teach them every day.
However much of that applies to even the first 300 hours - massive amounts are learnt, some type or class-specific, much that is generally applicable. Some can be learnt on a synthetic training device, some cannot. Some cannot be learnt (safely) in a real aircraft, so FNPTs/sims are required.
Thank you for the unintended compliment, but I don't believe I warrant it. Unless I am a really good instinctive pilot then poling a light aircraft really does allow you to feel the flight of a larg one. I did my MCC course as a very current PPL instructor. I was flying a Lockheed Tristar sim together with a CPL/IR/FI(R) holder on 300 hours who wasn't flying regularly. Our instructor assessed that we both did well at the course, better than he would expect on a type-rating course at that level (he was experienced in the airline training environment). I also flew better than my partner (my partner's assessment, although I could see it too), although by the best assessment I could make there was little difference in native ability, as rates of improvement were comparable. I was just far more experienced in flying, or am a better natural aviator than even I, an egotistical pilot, would ever think.
Note that 900 hours, mostly in a PA-28 will not tell me how a Partenavia will feel after take-off either. However because of my experience in other aircraft I know how to get a feel for the aircraft, and very quickly it became second nature. I am not learning the direct skills of flying a 737, but I am learning the meta skills of how to learn to fly an aeroplane, which can be applied to each aircraft I try.