Hi Eclan
I fly charter in the Top End and would have to agree with Mick. I also would not disagree with your experiences as I have seen a few bright newbies come on board and be checked to line with very little icus and be great charter pilots. The standard has dropped with flying training. I did my NVFR after I had about 1200 hrs of charter experience. The instructor who did my rating had thousands of hours of instructional experience and knew a hell of a lot about flight training but was clueless as to the realities of remote charter flying.
I guess my point is that basic flying training and Commercial charter, Rpt etc are two different games. I expect that flying schools should put out a training programme based on "real world" flying as this is what the majority of students are aiming for.
The company I work for wont hire fresh Cpls. In reality it would take 30 plus icus hours to get the average low time pilot up to speed. Most of the low timers we have had come through cant even do a manual flight plan!
Regards