No kidding! Can you say CH-53 or EH-101 as an office, and a comparable paycheck to what a lot of the airline types make? Sounds pretty good to me!
Don't forget about Evergreen, Carson,Columbia, or Erickson Aircrane. All of which start out co-pilots at about 75K and top out around 105K after you make captain. Erickson pilots at least only work an average of about 156 days out of the year.
Let's not forget that while the economy may change the face of commercial air travel, wildland fires ain't going away! I tend to think the fact that the general hiring minimums for even entry level turbine helo jobs keeps the quality of pilots fairly high, and the riff raff out. because of that, you don't see too many 21 year old ERAU kids "time building" or flying corporate or heavy lift turbine helicopters. a 450 hr ab initio "captain" of a BE-1900, or CRJ should scare the hell out of all of us!
Or...you can suck it up for 3 years making less than food stamp wages for the priviledge of sitting right seat in a CRJ and doing the "terminal strut."You'll then be rewarded with the slim potential you'll make to the majors in a few years. I have a good friend who was flying CRJs for Mesa and had to quit cuz' he just couldn't make ends meet and was out of his house 280 days of the year. He has now doubled his salary by installing carpet and is home every night. No thanks, I can make a living flying either, and I'm sticking with helicopters. Keep in mind these experiences are from non-military F/W guys who have tried to build the time themselves without the benefit of C-9, C-20, C-2 tours, etc.
if you're good at what you do, there's a comfortable quality of life to be had no matter your platform experience. There's a whole lot to aviation besides the airlines.
