SIR OSIS! its been a while! I thought that river of yours may have finally dried up
As for the 206 and 208, I have 1000 hrs on each and If I were to do it all over again, I would not change a thing. I flew the 206 up to 1300 hrs total time (about 1000 on type) and then did the Van rating, because of my total command time I did 2 months on the Van and then got command on it. So as a result I have managed to keep a very high command time versus P2 time which as a result means that getting command on the next machine never takes.
The 206, though piston, was the most fun I have ever had flying and tought me a lot about myself and aviation. You dont have room to cock up because there is only you and the machine and no one to baby sit you. Granted, you wont fly IF and night, but that will come in time.
Then look at some of my 300hr Van co pilots, they had to do 1200 hrs in the right seat (time that your log book makes no provision to log toward total time) before they could get command. By the time they got command, they were so bored of the Van that they went and got 200 or 1900 ratings and then got P2 positions on them. The problem with that is that on contract, you will never get command until you have at least 3000 hrs, so by flying vans now, you are setting yourself up for 3000 hrs of p2 time.
Dog