Spanner, you are opening up a whole new can of worms there. Whether FR choose to take on experienced FOs or not is a management decision of theirs. In the recent past experienced people from other companies have been hired, however, the policy at the moment is cadet only.
Very few DECs are being hired compared to the 350+ cadets this year: the DECs fill the gap in the SFO ranks where suitable internal candidates are not available. In 2011 there may be no DEC recruitment as sufficient numbers of SFOs will be available internally; on the other hand, there may be a requirement for both DECs and direct entry FOs. Who knows?
The change of tack from the number of hours to the number of years is a natty sidestep: the military guys will get at best around 30 hrs a month, maybe more on ops these days, but certainly not the regular 850 a civilian accrues. I went to CFS with about 2200 hrs and apart from 1 other had the most hours on the course and years flying: that didn't make me the best though ( although I did win a trophy).
The LTC is not teaching basic handling skills a la QFI: he / she is honing certain skills, refining techniques, demonstrating via their application the importance of SOPs and teaching the practicalities of flying the line on a day to day basis. Everything from where the new cadet can find weather reports, to the suitability of certain airfields as alternates compared to others that aren't, to descent planning and energy management. Hardly the same as teaching Spinning 1 and 2.
The one big difficulty the modern LTC has is the lack of breadth to his / her experience as the business contracts and short haul guys stay short haul, long haul stay long haul: there is less movement sideways available. Equally, there are fewer ex military around to bring in advanced pure handling skills.
We are fortunate to have a balance of experience at FR: people who are ex military from many different countries, people with experience flying in different parts of the world, varied civilian backgrounds from corporate to widebody and many former civilian instructors: if you looked closely at the training departments of most companies you would probably find an equally eclectic mix, and that makes for balance, just as not focusing on the number hours a TC has, but taking in to account primarily their ability to teach and their motivation to teach is.
I always tell cadets that my way is not the only way of doing things: take the best information from all of the LTCs and distill and refine it. That is how we get better at this flying malarky.