Been there, went to OAT some years ago and had a good poking from plank heads. Out of approx 200 students, only 2-3 of us were REAL pilots. After the first fifty hours all they did was fly in straight lines for 28 mins then take up a heading of 020 degs for another 18 mins at 2500'. They did that for a year gearing up for there IR. Mean while I was hoofing around a "! feet for a hour at a time chasing foxes and rabbits and hiding behind hedges etc having a fecking ball. Believe me, after a couple of months they were all green with jealousy and they were bored witless. As 332 says, I now earn the same as top end jet pilots but only work half the year, I'm tucked up in my own pit every night and fly fairly social hours and if I want to travel, the opportunity is also there. True, we fly for most of the time in straight lines with George taking up the slack but there is allot more hands on the controls flying.
By the way, two of the plank pilots from oat when I was there are now Capts in offshore ops and have NEVER looked back at there dark days as fixed wing idiots. Keep your chin high and shoulders back
p.s ask them to hover when they are on short finals.