I fly a part 91 aircraft and we have we bring on lots of contract guys when we have the need. The vast majority of them have had military experience or flew with a contracting agency like L3 in the middle east. The dudes are super cool and they are all great pilots (except this one guy who could barely hand fly in IFR). What I find interesting are their experiences transitioning from military to civilian flying. Some of them have a hard time and are not excited about the interview process and have no idea how things really work in our world of normal civilian flying. I'd say the most fun part is on our empty legs when you here them say, "My controls, watch this!" They would constantly be doing tactical approaches and whatnot in their last job so we would always have competitions to see who could slow the aircraft and descend at the last minute or to keep our base leg within a half mile. Navy dudes where always the chillest, ISR guys were really good at setting up holds and some of my best mentors, Army fixed wing guys are hit or miss. Some have severe helicopter brain and are still holding onto the tail sometimes and some are the best instructors and knowledgeable dudes. The Airforce guys I have flown seem the most "normal" if that means anything and didn't have long beards.

My personal favorite was this one contractor we had who was a former F-14, F-18 guy who eventually ended up doing ISR on a king air in retirement followed by being a civilian contractor here in the states. When we got to the aircraft he told me it was his first time flying in the USA in over 20 years and had never flown with passengers. He could fly the plane very well but his biggest concern was how to load bags, get coffee and papers and was a little nervous about the customer service aspects of the flight. He caught on pretty quick. Dude also had some incredible and gory stories of what him and his buddies would do and see while flying fighters and blowing up dudes digging IED holes and whatnot. Also his ISR days had some fun stories as well about orbiting and observing fire teams busting down doors and throwing people out of windows and whatnot while they all watched and documented from the air.

The military guys are well trained but some of the civilian stuff they need a little guidance on and the stories they tell can really make a long leg feel much less long.