I've got a friend who retired a couple of years ago from BA, flying 747-400s
as his latest and last mount. He bought a Bulldog. He hadn't flown a light
aircraft in a rather large number of years. He wasn't at all confident about
flying it and made sure he got some hours of instruction before even
attempting to solo. Now he's trying to grapple with navigation to be
able to leave the circuit. He's had a good GPS installed! :-)

They say that the most common mistake with airline pilots who
haven't flown a light aircraft in a while is trying to flare at 30ft!

Paul

The Air Force Base I am stationed at is one of the few that still has
an Aero Club left. The membership is open to anybody even remotely
connected to the base (active duty, guard, reserve, civilians, family
members. Probably 20,000 people eligible to join, yet the club membership
is just over 100 people with maybe 15-20 flying during any given month.

The thing that I have always found to be strange is that the membership is
mostly enlisted and civilian. The number of active duty pilots can be counted
on one hand. Checking the aircraft registry for the county, I find that very
few military pilots have aircraft at the local airport.

My best guess is that most of the active duty pilots have very little time
in GA aircraft or flying in a non-military environment. A lot of the pilots
enter into pilot training without a PPL and are sent into Initial Flight Training
at a military Aero Club or under a contract with a civilian flight school.
The Air Force pays for 40 hours of training and the students are expected to
be ready for a checkride near the 40 hour point. After completing the private
course they have very little time before they are sent to initial jet training for a year.
I would chance to guess that there are active duty pilots who have a few thousand
hours flying military aircraft, but haven't been near a GA aircraft since their
initial 8 weeks in IFT.

-Mac