Helos and the airlines...

[HAL Pilot]

Hmmmm ... that's news to me .... I spent 25 years @ two airlines off/on as a Check Airman/FAA designee/Instructor and the best I ever saw was a 10% override ... but as I spent most of it on wine, women, and song I really didn't realize any extra cash ... what else are you gonna' do after the sim is over, anyway ... ???

Hawaiian: IOE Captains get a $30/hour override and Sim Instructors get a $25/hour override. If you're one of the company DEs, you get another $10/hour on top of that. Plus they get max hours/credit each month and get a positive space ticket to/from domicile and bypass the bidding process for their pairings. All our sims are done in Long Beach (717) or Seattle (767) so the guys are never around the head shed.

Lately our Chief Pilots haven't been lasting more than one term (2 years) in office. They can't stand the politics and can't stand f'ing the pilot group. Since we're small (400 pilots), everybody knows everybody and being the CP takes it's toll. I don;t know what the pay is, but they had a really hard time getting a Captain to step up and take the job after the last CP went back to the line.

 

[Tom]

Is that a comment, an interrogative, or ... ????

Just being sarcastic.

 

[phrogdriver]

There's a forum, "Army Pilot to Airline Pilot," that has a lot of ex-helo guys giving gouge on airline transitions. http://aptap.forumco.com/default.asp

It used to be a much beefier site, now it's just forums. I haven't looked at it in detail since I sold myself to THE MAN for another 6 years.

My personal 2 cents--you have to REALLY want to go airlines as a helo guy. You need to either build time on your own towards it by getting your CFI ratings or by going to a B-billet that lets you build time. Examples would be C-12 or C-9 tours in the Corps.

Even with the Vietnam generation retiring, helo jobs on the outside generally start at well under military pay. You can make extra cash by staying in the reserves, but you'll end up getting activated and being on active duty anyway, so that's kind of a zero-sum game.

The airlines have a lot of paying-your-dues time before you start getting serious scratch. We actually have a furloughed UAL pilot in a non-flying contractor job in our squadron right now.

Bottom line--civil aviation is a tough nut to crack right now. It's getting better, but for the newbies--don't join the military thinking you'll leave and cash in on the backside. If airlines are your thing, I'd say you're probably better off building time on the outside vice spending 8 years in before leaving.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not an airline pilot. I'm just a lifer who did some fence-sitting for a couple years and scoped out my options.

 

[ChunksJR]

On a change of pace, I have heard that in the next 7 years 75% of commercial helicopter pilots are retiring. The possibilities are definitely out there, but then again who would want to leave the military anyway...

...or what I said. I weep for the future of helo aviation.

~D

 

[wink]

These days I don’t get the attraction. The pay sucks. You have zero stability. Airway flying is painful. I guess it's the sweet uniforms. :tongue2_1

Well, the uniforms are sweet, now, since they authorized a cool leather flying jacket.