For all you guys who get bitchily defensive about how helicopter flying is such a great career...all I've got to say is that you're delusional.
Helicopter flying is a great JOB, but as a *career* it blows. This has ALWAYS been the case. And unless the unions bring about some major changes, it always WILL always be the case.
Look, you like what you like. If you dig helicopter flying, you'll find any way of rationalizing it and claiming you've got a great job. Eh- maybe you do. But as Bert pointed out, the MAJORITY of line pilots do not. They work paycheck-to-paycheck, always hoping that the *NEXT* job will be "the one." And sometimes they go their entire "careers" without finding it. Yes indeedy, there are risks associated with doing this for money! Noboby promised any of us that we'd get rich. But money is beside the point, right? It's all about "job satisfaction."
The difference between us and airline pilots is that *they* have a clearly defined path to better pay/benefits. And yes, whether you admit it or not, at the end of the day it IS about how much money you have to support yourself when you cannot fly anymore. (Oh gee, we're not supposed to think about that, are we?) And in this case, airline pilots beat us hands down.
For someone who's just entering the industry and wants to know which way to go, the airlines are CLEARLY the wiser choice...unless, as I've said, the person has that neurotic need to fly helicopters. Don't tell him/her that one type of flying is *better* than the other. Don't tell him/her that airline flying is "easy" or "unchallenging" or "cushy." As proud as you may be of the demands of our job, that's just silly. On the other hand, don't tell him/her that the road to "success" in helicopters is easy and short and that every working day will be pure heaven on earth (as some of you have indicated). We all know differently, even if we don't want to admit it.
If I have a chip on my shoulder, it's because helicopter pilots have forever been taken advantage of by our employers. But that's only the half of it. They've been able to do that because too many of us have let them. We think that helicopter flying is "better than a 9-to-5 desk job," as if that's the ONLY alternative.
Not long ago I got a call. Friend-of-a-friend kind of thing. This guy was offering me an ENG position in N.Y. as a pilot and perhaps pilot/reporter. First question out of my mouth: How much money are we talking about? He hems and haws and says they *might* be able to go as high as $45k/year. I said that we would START talking at $90k. Taken aback and flustered, he goes, "B-b-but this is NEW YORK CITY!" I said big deal, and that he needed to find some low-time kid with stars in his eyes who would try to live "in NEW YORK CITY!" on that kind of money. And I guess that's what they did. I have not lost one wink of sleep over it, nor is it likely that I will.
$40-45k/year for a 24-7, no-drinking, no days-off ENG job, AND be responsible for scheduling the maintenance and stuff like that, AND live thirty minutes from the bird? Oh yeah! This business still blows. No doubt about it. Why would Rob Powell choose any other??