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Any Commissioned Guard Pilots on here?


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I was hoping for a warrant officer position but my state may only have a commissioned spot for me (assuming I get accepted). Ill take whatever spot gets me in, but are flight minimums the same for warrants and commissioned officers? Are those minimums constant with rank on the commissioned side?

 

Thanks

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Mins are the same. If you have a good attitude, work hard and develop skills quickly you'll fly more than your AD counterparts and as much as the warrants do. You will also have a greater chance of full-time work as a junior officer than you would as a warrant, and if your goal is to be a working commercial pilot, that will help pay the bills while you throw money down the hole building hours. The problem is, few do that. It costs a lot of money to get to the magical 1000 hrs PIC, though that wall is becoming more and more porous over time.

 

My old boss in the guard has worked commercially and, as a Captain, is probably around 3500 TT, with 2000 mil hours. He already had his ratings before he went to flight school, and his R44 time was just as critical to him getting his first real job as was the fact that the chief pilot was a retired SAAO. Most of the other commissioned guys just end up getting sucked into the commissioned world, even the other guy in our unit who wanted to be a warrant, already had his helo ratings before he went to school and is a good pilot who's turned down offers to dabble in commercial aviation.

 

Typically even if you have the right attitude, you pick up things like a wife and kids, and it's tough to leave behind the coddling world of government work for the helicopter aviation world. I just started with my 4th employer in 4 years (loss of contracts, bankruptcy, loss of contract), and that doesn't count the 5 months I spent as a temp tech at the facility between jobs.

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I'm a CW2 with 14 years on the charts. My 5 year average is $23k and 167 points per year. The last two years have tapered off quite a bit since I've been prorating mins and doing some temp tech time, but that's made up for on the other end by starting the first year as an O4. I'd bet you'd be around $15k.

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