Originally Posted by WR
I agree. But they do't need higher skill levels.
I think there are a couple of separate issues:
a) complacency, I agree the more experienced may well suffer more from it.
b) actual flying ability, now with this I think we all agree that the more hours flown will generally result in better skill levels, albeit that they may come with increased complacency.
IMHO the issue here is not whether the pilot flying minimum hours to keep the licence develops skills, or not, it's a case of whether the skills diminish to an unsafe level. I acknowledge this is a generalisation, however in the context of the thread not many fresh ppls' stopping flying after the skills test are going to retain the necessary skills levels on minimum hours.
If, on the other hand someone with 10 000 hrs drops to minimum it is likely they will retain a more than adequate level of skill (assuming they had it initially).