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In the movie Independence Day, one of the characters ends up saving the day by flying an F/A-18 fighter jet into the Alien Mothership.

That character's only previous experience flying was crop-dusting with a small crop-dusting plane (and we can assume he wasn't necessarily the best pilot there, but was competent).

While I understand there are holes, and exaggerations, etc. in the movie, I was curious - Could you train a pilot who has only flown small crop-dusting planes to successfully take off and fly a fighter jet within say, 1 month?

Or for all practical purposes would it be better to simply not use that pilot (because they might crash the plane on takeoff, etc.)?

(I'm unsure if this is a better fit over on Aviation SE or here...)

The character of Russell Casse is currently employed crop-dusting, but this is not his only experience flying.

According to this wiki, he is a former F-4 fighter pilot and fought in the Vietnam War.

While getting competent in any plane requires some familiarity and training, it's a far more likely conversion from one fighter jet to another, than from a propeller driven crop duster to an F/A-18.

From one copy of the script:

Well, I'm, uh, Russell Casse, sir.
And, uh... after 'Nam,
I got into crop-dusting.
And, uh... been doing that ever since.

Which at the very least implies heavily that he has combat flying experience and transferred to crop dusting after he got out of service, even if there is no specific mention of the F-4.

Even if there were no in-script evidence of his service history, a large number of commercial pilots in the USA are ex-military. This article indicates that at the time the movie was released this was still over 50%, and older pilots are more likely to be ex-military. Now not all pilots are fighter pilots, but I think on balance this is not a particularly unlikely plot point.

All Russell said was:

"I can fly, I'm a pilot"

It was later in the briefing that Russell filled in a bit of his story,

(Russell giving his background to Major Mitchell) Well, I'm, uh, Russell Casse, sir. And, uh... after 'Nam, I got into crop-dusting. And, uh... been doing that ever since. On a personal note, sir, I'd just like to add that, uh...ever since I was kidnapped by aliens 10 years ago,...I have been dyin' for some payback, and I...just want you to know that, uh... I won't let you down.

But in an alternate ending Russell flew his biplane into the alien ship...

[Narrator] So this scene exists in the movie as is but it ends a certain point. We wanted show that they were so desperate for pilots that they'd ask anybody. That's where we ended in the final version of the movie, but here's how it originally ended...

[Major Mitchell] Sorry, sir.

[Russell Casse] Wait a minute you don't understand... I... I got to be a part of this, it's important to me. These guys, they, they, ruined my life.

[MM] Why don't you just go sleep that off sir.

[RC] scoffs But I can fly! You want people that can fly, I can fly! It's the one thing I do...

[Narrator] The original idea was to show how he was... the one talent he had he couldn't use in an important moment. He would later show up in his biplane and save the day. But what we lost by that, we never able to actually see him sobering up, we weren't able to see him in training, and so all those scenes were shot later in the last minute.

So what this tells us is that Russell originally wasn't supposed to have any jet-fighter experience, but was later changed to fit the story better.