Hey Desert Dude-
Happy that you found your little slice of helicopter nirvana. Trouble is, yours is the exception rather than the rule.
The helicopter industry is tiny. Just how many actual positions like Desert Dude's do we think there are out there...100, tops? Maybe not even that many. And this is something that pilots want/try to aspire to?
The sad irony is that a new helicopter pilot cannot even direct his career to end up at Desert Dude's job. Oh, he might aim in that general direction, but too many outside factors will come into play for robpowell69 to say, "Yes, I'm going to have Desert Dude's job one day!" Get real. Desert Dude lucked-out and he knows it. Or he should.
Meanwhile, the path to the left seat of an airliner is clearly marked. While you or I (e.g. older guys) very well might not end up making $300,000/year, the financial rewards are certainly there. Hey, I'd would even take $100,000/year with all the other bennies that come with being a captain for an airline. Because *THAT* is certainly and easily do-able, even at my age. Can we say the same about helicopters? Nope.
Ol' Desert Dude evidently doesn't like being called an underacheiver. He obviously could be doing anything he set his mind to. He said himself that he had his sights on a FedEx airline job once, but settled for being a helicopter pilot and righteously defends the choice. Good for him! But being an underacheiver has little to do with our own personal goals, and everything to do with what we are capable of.
Some of us have a neurotic need to fly helicopters, I suppose - something I've never quite understood. I've always loved to fly both fixed-wing and rotary...just LOVE to fly! And hopefully, I'll continue to fly for a long time to come.
Helicopters are not magic. They're just machines that do a job...machines that will kill you quick if you let your attention lapse for even a second. Yeah, they're neat and cool. Whoopee. Young pilots ask me all the time, "Man, how could you EVER get tired of flying helicopters??" They ask it with such a breathless, wide-eyed, disbelieving tone...the kind of look I used to have on my face, I guess, when I thought I wouldn't be able to breath without being a helicopter pilot. I say, call me back in twenty years and 10,000 hours. It's just a damn aircraft.
And it's not that I'm tired of them. It's just that if I never saw another helicopter ever again...that'd be okay. Really. I don't want to fly them for money anymore. Call me...
Mr. Underacheiver No More