Darkhorse

The Border Patrol requires 1500 hrs. but will waive down to 750 depending on Military experience (goggles, low/high altitude, NOE, Combat) Haven't seen them advertise in a month or two but you might keep an eye out.

I'll take an MH-47E/G any day of the week and 4 times on Sunday. Speed, guns, power..and their just flat out sexy what more can u ask for? Besides, all the women are sitting in the 47's at air shows, not Black Hawks or Apaches.

If you had money you wouldnt have to worry about flying or being ugly...see how easy that was?

Is is just the 1-2000 hour pilots that are having problems being hired? I don't work in the civil market but we had a civil medevac pilot who flies a government drone contract come fly with us today for his currency and he said they are still hurting for evac pilots. He comes out every 6 months or so and he always says they are short pilots. He said they have openings in Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Hobbs and El Paso. It seems whenever I look, med evac companies are on or close to the bottom of the pay scale but have the highest hour requirements. Reading boards like this, people all seem to want an evac job yet they have high turn over rates.

I'm not trying to get in an arguement but a 60 and a 47 are much faster than just about any civil helicopter fighting fires, the water they carry is far more than about any civil helicopter so i truly dont think your getting near the bang for the buck in that respect. I don't know what it is today but in 1999 the guard charged $2500 per flight hour to the forest service for a CH-47, Columbia helicopter charged 10k or 12k per hour for their 47...not nearly the bang for the buck. I was just clarifying but my main concern is lives and homes, I have nothing against anyone making a dollar.

Chinooks are easy, make sure everything is out of the way, ramp down and tape up any floor tie downs. Huey remove all the seats, put seat belts on the floor, tape up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that protrudes or can snag (including on the skids). Sorry no idea's about an R44, a huey you can feel the cg shift if you have a couple big guys go out the same side at the same time. I'm sure it is much more pronounced on an R44 but I am ignorant on that helo so no speculation.

If your looking for quality of helo training, no one teaches helo's like the Army. After training how things are done is another story. The AF used to send their pilots through the Army training (Initial rotor wing training) but started training their own a few years ago. If your looking for quality of life, AF all the way. You will be a bastard child in the fixed wing guys eyes but at least you will be having fun and living/being treated MUCH better than the Army guys. Pay will most likely be better in the AF also because you will be commissioned. You can be commissioned in the Army also but if your plan is getting the most flying you would want to be a Warrant. There are also alot more vacancies filled each year in the Army and you know you will be flying helo's. AF I'm not positive anymore but I don't think you get to pick between fw/rw. You may be able to request since most want fw. Thats my thoughts, Ive been in the Army and the AF and if I had a choice it would be AF even if it were for fw. Life is MUCH better for you and your family if you have one, all depends on what you want though.

I'm probably going to bring down the fire with this one because I'm really not sure how I feel. This is probably one of the few area's where the government (National Guard) is more equipped to handle a situation than the private sector. I am all for keeping people employed but in this situation your boiling things down to lives and homes in a lot of cases and a jet ranger with its 50 gallon bucket and a bell 212 with its 300 gallon bucket (if it can take a full bucket based on alt/temp) is no contest to a blackhawk with a 6 or 800 gallon or a Chinook with a 3000 gallon bucket. I love Huey's and I have fought fires with them alot, they are good for small and confined fires. I have fought fires with Chinooks and have sat there for weeks without flying a single hour as not to compete with the commercial sector. The kicker is, the aircraft was not being charged when it wasnt flying but the crew was being payed a good wage for 12 hours a day every day just to sit. To sum up, are we saving lives and homes or are we just spreading out money? It seems like alot of wasted money all around for crews that arent flying on one side, and aircraft that are not optimal on the other side yet they both come together on the payroll. Don't get me wrong, Erickson and Columbia have the equippment but imo there are alot of acft on fires that are paying the company bills but in reality are not making a defference on fires. I'm not meaning to offend anyone so don't take this as a personal attack. I'm open to thoughts I havent considered.

Ok I'm still confused because I have heard different answers. Is it 20 years of "civil service" or 20 years of "federal law enforcement". I have 15 years of "civil service" but my understanding is the cut off is still 40 because of "federal law enforcement". Either way i still have two years but I'm not so under the gun if my civil service time counts.

I was feeling like a putz last week. I had the foggles on for a half hour and then went into the high angle 60deg turns and unusual attitude recovery. I started getting a bit queezy in the stomache, some soft sweats but I held it together. I didnt think after all these years of flying the foggles would get me, but they did.

Sorry Darren didnt mean to be so negative, its just been one of those days. Hopefully your optomism will carry us both . I agree there will not be nearly the flood into the market there was during Vietnam. Theres not nearly the pilots and the war wont end nearly as quick.

Just a side note, most pilots leaving the military will have more than 1500 hours. Infact most should have 2k+. Side note #2, I dont think Obama has kept a campaign promise yet and I don't think the economy outlook is optomistic at all. Maybe for a short span with all the money flooding the economy but it will shrivel quickly. Thats my opinion, put it in the round file.

In saying power I assume you mean HP, however they have very high torque rating. As they say in the car world, HP sells cars, Torque moves them. The DeltaHawk is already certified for use in a few FW applications. The Theilert diesel was also in the Diamond twinstar and cessna was putting them in their new aircraft until they went out of business. Dont know what happened there with so many orders from those 2 manufactures but it was a fantastic engine that doubled the endurance of a C182 drinking only 5.5 - 6.5 gph.

Besides the hour issues brought up with FW already, I only pay $89 an hour for a 172 and $114 dual. That may be lower than the average hourly rate I dont know, but is a big difference from your calculation in the long haul.

I think he's looking for the prototype S-64 that utilizes the MH-53 engines (3), transmission and rotor hub/blades. I used to have some info on it, I'll look when I get home.