THIS IS LONG!
Hi Wesp,
This is more a response to TC then to your original question (I gave my advice re that in the VR forum).
If you are looking for a new career which will provide good pay and benefits, job security, and long-term stability with something to take care of you and yours when you retire, then indeed the helicopter industry is not the best place to look. While there are always exceptions, the general rule seems to be 3 - 6 years of very low pay combined with nomadic living.
After that, things look like what you would expect from an entry-level job anywhere else - pay in the $40 - $60k range and a pretty good chance to stay in one place (although the place will most likely choose you). After another 4 - 6 years, you are making enough to be comfortable in a lower middle-class kind of way.
Bottom line on the "bottom line", don't do it if money is the primary reason, or if you will need to establish a solid income or living situation over the next six years or so. If you family doesn't like a succession of moves every year or two, that would be another stopper.
However, if you have a solid (as in enough to support your family for five years if you didn't work at all) savings portfolio, plus the $50k it will cost to do the training, then follow your dreams. At 41 years old, you can be a CFI at 42, do your in-the-trenches tour or GOM duty at 44 and be somewhat established by age 47 or so. This gives you anywhere from 10 - 15 years as a viable employee (assuming you stay in good health). You won't have increased your fortune, but you will have followed the dream.
As far as age and employment potential goes, I suspect employers will review you on your experience and track record. The tour guys only care that you can maintain the pace - if you have survived 800 hours as a CFI, you can probably survive tours.
A final thought which does relate to your original question. If you want your training environment to better resemble what the helicopter business world actually looks like, go to Hillsboro. HAI is a superb training environment, but there is no place like it in the rest of the business. If you land a job there, great - you've grabbed the brass ring and pretty much assured that (with continued diligance in your own development) you will have a solid transition to the post-CFI world.
However, if you're one of the 50% who takes your first CFI job elsewhere, it may be a bit of a shock to realize just how haphazard the rest of the world is both in operational organization and in regularity of work. There will be a bit of an adjustment period, and it will most likely take longer to get the hours. However, you will most likely end up with a better sense of how things actually happen in the rotary-wing business.
Don't misunderstand me - as I said elsewhere, HAI is as good as it gets for training (and that's really good). I'm proud and happy to be a graduate, and hope to maintain the ties I made while I was there. I think it is the best choice for you, but don't build your expectations on how the industry will treat you based on your HAI experience - the rest of the world isn't that nice...