Just to keep the pot bubbling
Here's a healthy perspective from one of Canada's Mil drivers...
"Live" from another forum.
"I'm military guy, drove 212s, Labs and now Sea Kings. Love flying off ships, it's way way cool stuff.
I dream of finishing military life and finding work driving anything small enough to fly alone. Willing to earm my keep out there and learn the trade, customer relations and all that good stuff you need to know. I love flying the big iron, got tons of time on the dials day and night but it would be so nice to just fly off in some light machine and just fly by yourself without a committee of three, four and sometimes as many as six aircrew.
I appreciate my "on the dials" time is pretty high but I have no problem getting out there and "earning my wings" in the bush. What we do in the military is tons different to what most civvy drivers do and I am constantly humbled when I look at the skills of pilots flying smaller machines but doing that longlining thing or aerial spraying or mountain flying.
My skill set includes flying at 15 feet in formation with 20 other 212s, shooting an approach just by eye into the hills north of Val D'Or at night to rescue someone, hoisting guys out of a canoe during a storm on the great lakes and landing a Sea King on the pitching deck of a frigate in the North Atlantic, great stuff and I've loved it but it does not make me anywhere near qualified to do what you guys do so well and make look so easy.
If CHC Int'l finds my background interesting then that would be terrific but like I said I've never assumed I am qualified nor deserve to "jump ahead" of anyone else in line for bigger machines just because I flew in the Air Force.
Bottom line is I just love flying helicopters and I'll be happy if I get a 25 year old Jet Ranger to move big and smelly prospectors around or a chance at a bigger machine. Whatever, so long as my bum is off the ground, I'm ready to learn tons of new stuff."