Do you mean half the year in the sense of 7 on/7 off schedule? My understanding is a lot of EMS types commute to base because their job because the locales are usually astuere at best. That would negate that unless you’re very flexible on where you live.
That's what i meant, plus vacation time. I'm by no means an expert on Air Ambulance, and learning as I go, but I've been doing a ton of research and networking, as well as talking with some buds that do it now. For locations I'm looking at with the company I'm looking at, commuting can be a thing, but seems to be something people do "short-term" until something opens up closer. Obviously it's a big market and I've only talked to a small percentage of guys.
I'm actually looking at doing that, but I'm looking at a base that also provides quarters/per diem and the commute home at the end of 7 days is only ~3 hours, so not a huge pain compared to what some have done.
I'm with you, everyone has to find their niche. I just wish I could find mine while flying LSF in T-34 for a few years as a contractor. That would be pretty epic.
I'm skeptical about current reports of pilots making $70K per year. remember that your peers are mostly those without a 4 year college degree, and ceratinly not from any sort of prestigious university. It's more of a slightly blue collar culture. Some awesome pilots though. You just won't be discussing whats in today's WSJ or NYT with your base buddies.
I was quoted $65K starting by one of the line pilots that works for the company I've been looking at. That was SPIFR, although apparently you don't actually execute SPIFR privileges until you're off 6-12 months of probation, which I thought was interesting.
I think it's a different market than what you experienced, Chuck. In large part due to the insurance minimums that have been put in place and an increase in safety awareness. I've been pleasantly surprised in my research at how proficiency is something that's understood and needs to be maintained, and an extra .3 at the end of a flight is okay to shoot an approach.