career choice

[flashgordon]

I am currently thinking about a career as a pilot and am pursuing it very diligently. Im hopefully being accepted as a army helicopter pilot but if i dont wanna do 20 years in the service im wondering what fields there are outside.

 

I see alot of EMS or corporate, wondering what they pay if u dont mind sharing and what the schedule is like?

 

Being a tour guide sounds kinda cool if you give tours in a spot you like, and transport or logging is also enticing because you get to fly some cool areas.

 

Would love to hear some opinions and salaries and reasons why you chose what u did and didnt.

 

Thanks

[Direct C51]

I don't have all of the answers you are looking for, but I might be able to help a little. The military route is a fantastic way to get in to a career in helicopters. You will work very hard, be sent to places you don't necessarily want to go, and will absolutely spend too much time away from home. However, you will build time and get paid a lot doing it (relative to building hours as a civilian.)

 

The times of doing 6 years and getting out with 2000 hours are over. It just will not happen until the next big war. I would assume a new pilot will have around 1000 hours when their 6 years is up. This puts you in a tour job or the low hour gulf jobs. EMS won't be possible until you get around 2000 hours. Corporate generally requires more IFR time and quite a bit more hours. EMS salary starts around $55,000 to $60,000. A warrant officer at their 6 year mark who gets selected for CW3 will be looking at $90,000+ before taxes.

[Azhigher]

Helicoptersalaries.com

 

I did tours at first because it was a way to get turbine hours and build time. Then I swapped companies and did it for 2 more years because it paid really well for the experience I had (95k a year for a 2000 hour pilot)

 

Now I'm doing EMS for the home life, the easy work, and varied flights.