I've felt fustrated in the past about plank drivers coming in on their copious time off to do a little rotary time. The sad fact remains that in order to remain competitive most onshore helo operators use contract pilots. Given the choice of a high time R22 instructor with a jet banger rating and a handful of turbine hours against a plank driver with 1000 hours turbine the choice is simple.
Question is how are flight duty hours / days off affected? My guess is that they should count whether they are flying rotary or fixed wing. If that is the case, these plank guys must have a shed load of time off.