I do like flying 46s. The assault support misson is one of the best.
I looked into flying helos commercially. If you want to do it, don't do it for the money. The best civilian helo jobs top out at about 80K, with most starting in the 30s to 40s. You can make better money in the military, especially with the aviation bonus.
The only law enforcement helo jobs that really float my boat are the federal ones--Customs, DEA, and FBI HRT support, and I am looking at those fairly seriously. One, the federal agencies all have tactical aspects to their flying, especially the Customs job. Two, most local LE helo jobs have you walking a beat for 1-3 years before you start flying. Three, most local police helo work consists of shining searchlights on suspects in bushes, which is neat, but not like FAST-roping troops on NVGs.
Helicopter EMS looked interesting at first--medevacing shock/trauma patients, etc., but if you look at the flying itself, it's mostly point A to point B 500 feet AGL and above. Again, why give up flying at 100' on NVGs?
Then there are the miscellaneous cats and dogs, like petroleum support (flying to oil rigs) and corporate flying. Again, the main challenge in both of those is contending with weather conditions and high priority flights. Military flying is still generally cooler.
This isn't to say that there aren't interesting opportunities out there. Saudi Arabia hires tandem-rotor pilots by the truckload to train their CH-47 pilots. Great pay, crappy location. A company called Dyn-Corp hires pilots to do contract counter-drug work for the State Dept in Colombia. You have to catch the right wave though, and probably not have a family, either.
The military will give you the ratings you need. If you take the FAA written tests w/in a certain time of getting your wings, you can get your single engine commercial airplane, your rotorcaft, and your commercial instrument ratings right off the bat. As far as competing for civilian jobs, you'll need a lot of hours. 1500 min total time, 1000 pilot-in-command is a baseline. Civil carriers won't hire with any less for insurance reasons. That's more than you'll have after one fleet tour, which means either more time in the fleet, or going to a "B" billet like instructing in flight school. Flight school duty will also get you qualed in the Bell 206, which is a very common bird on the outside.
Phrogs phorever
