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Helo Community/ Flying in the Civilian World
- Thread starter Tacticruel
- Start date
But you get to see boat loads of freaky shit.
Let's see. I transport the paying public en mass on scheduled routes. Bus driver? Check. I am very well paid especially considering days worked. Much much better paid than a bus driver. Overpaid bus driver? Check. I fly 3-5 hours at a time and only find the first 20 minutes and last 30 minutes fun and challenging. An hour here and there dodging weather is not usually boring, but isn't so much fun. When at work and not flying I sit in airport restaurants or nap in some company space. Then there is the hotel stay. Boring? Yup, pretty much. Check. Ipso facto, frequently bored over paid bus driver. The ass wipe fucktard has a clue. He simply didn't mention the reasons it is a good job for guys like you and me.
I call BS...it's very exciting when you hit all the DDs and heckle the Starbucks morons in between.
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Also to the OP...something that I failed to mention on the positive side regarding my somewhat 'Debbie Downer' post above is that often (if not most of the time) when an LE aviation department is downsized or eliminated, the pilots will be offered positions on patrol or possibly in other LE capacities within that agency since most (not all) LE pilots are already sworn LEOs.
@Tacticruel If you hadn't figured it out, mad dog was a real life big city cop and I flew LE as a hobby cop for a number of years. Because mad dog is usually hopped up on DD coffee and otherwise a friendly sort, I feel free including him in an offer to PM us. It is early for you. But it is good to have goals and make sure you don't inadvertently exclude yourself from future options.
I live in Maryland, and the MSP guys are well respected by the residents. In my job I'm always around their facilities. This is a link for few helo and aviation jobs in the area:
http://www.jsfirm.com/job/Maryland-...and/Middle-River-Maryland/6219/companyprofile
No you have a clue, ass wipe fucktard doesn't. You've lived the life and can make an informed opinion. From my experience, I don't feel like an overpaid bored bus driver. I feel more like an underpaid, underappreciated professional. Both are valid points of view based on our respective experience.
Ass wipe fucktard has no experience. Ass wipe fucktard is merely ignorantly speculating.
There is a difference.
There's a shocker. This is my shocked face-->
I thought we were supposed to go to the show
So much for professional.
But you have to make a decision while still an ass wipe fucktard. The problem with experience is that you always get it right after you really need it.
I'm not an airline pilot, but some of my best friends are (this is the same opening I give when talking about gays, btw). It, and EMS helos, for that matter, are not jobs one does because of the joy of flight. They're jobs one does because the lifestyle is good. Airlines have good pay and benefits for relatively little work. EMS helos have great schedules--usually 7 days on, 7 off, not much flying, and a lot of watching Netflix while waiting for a phone call.
I am a law enforcement pilot, albeit under training for a short while longer. There are some departments that hire you straight off the street to be a pilot. The biggest is ICE on the fed side. Fed hiring is a long, painful process, but flying for Customs is the real deal, and the pay/bennies are all the sweetness that Uncle Sam is known for.
My department, Baltimore PD, has a T/O of 9 pilots. Currently we have a vacancy (anyone with 1400 R/W hours, please PM, BTW). Upcoming vacancies will come at the rate of the speed at which old guys retire, about 25 years/9. We make you go through the police academy (considerably less fun than the '80s Steve Gutenberg version) and field training in the city in patrol (what I'm doing now). Then you go to the aviation unit. A few other cities follow this model.
A few others, mostly departments in Florida and in central/northern California, as well as Ft. Worth (off the top of my head), hire pilots to work for their police departments as civilian employees of the city.
Most others view the helo as an airborne patrol vehicle and do some form of internal accession. A lot of them, like Baltimore County, attract National Guard warrant types, who are happy to fly in the Guard while working in patrol and waiting for a slot to open up.
The LE hours and lifestyle are not nearly as cush as the airlines or EMS, but the flying is legit. I've worked surveillance, tailed cars, done top cover for SWAT raids, etc, just in the short time I've been training here.
Most of the really cool flying in the world, other than overseas contract gigs (which merit their own discussion, and aren't a long-term career anyway) does not pay as well as boring flying.
Remember, someone is paying for your toy. Fun does not pay the bills or keep the passengers happy.
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There's a shocker. This is my shocked face-->
The Show provides great quality of life and pay. I feel underpaid and underappreciated because at Hawaiian we have not had a new contract in almost 7 years and are 45% behind our counterparts at the other legacy airlines. However, I still better off than 98% of the country and leave military compensation/QOL so far behind it is almost laughable. Just because you feel your job is awesome, it doesn't mean you feel either appreciated or compensated fairly by your employer.
I am very professional when at The Show. My employer, my feel employees and my passengers all benefit from my professionalism in my career. This site is not my profession.
When you are lacking experience and ignorant, there are ways of asking questions without being a ass wipe fucktard. I have no problem with wanting to know about non-military helo pilot jobs. But making uniformed ignorant slams while lacking the experience to back up your uniformed ignorant slams makes you an ass wipe fucktard.
I don't slam those on here that are flying helos as cops, EMS, etc. I don't slam helos in general. I do know from experience that there are more, better paying fixed-wing jobs available and say this to those wanting to fly for a living that have not yet started pilot training. I have also encouraged helo pilots (in my Go To The Show way) that want to fly outside of the military to acquire fixed wing time, experience and licenses because of this fact. There is a difference.
Anyone with any experience at The Show can slam The Show all they want and I won't call them an ass wipe fucktard.
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Congrats, @phrogdriver ...BRAVO ZULU ...it's definitely not an easy task to secure an LE pilot position at a large PD such as Baltimore. I envy you!
Thread jack (of sorts)... Do you have any reference/link for the Ft. Worth job? The last time I went to their police website, it seemed like they only hired from within. Same with most of the larger municipalities in FL. Hernando (which has a pretty robust department, it seems) seems to be intentionally vague on how they hire for the aviation unit.
I'll throw in a pitch for the Army National Guard. We have guys that fly EMS, LE, airlines, test flight engineers for Gulfstream, etc.. If you want more money than a full time guard guy makes, go get a civilian job that pays more and just fly part time. I did that for awhile making significantly more money in my civilian job than I ever did on active duty. Eventually, I ditched the civilian job. Why? The short version is that no one in the guard wants to hear about the IT stuff you do during the week, but everyone at the IT job wants to know what it's like to fly a Blackhawk.
As someone already mentioned, in general, fun flying doesn't pay as much as "not as fun" flying. Hopefully I won't be called an ass wipe fucktard for saying that
. For me, I would rather enjoy my work more than make lots of money. Everyone's fun/money ratio requirement is different. What makes one person happy may not work for someone else.
Additionally, having options to fall back on helps to ease over some of the bad aspects of any job. It's amazing how much less things bother you if you have alternatives readily available. The national guard and reserves provide the opportunity to pursue and engage in more than one career field.
As someone already mentioned, in general, fun flying doesn't pay as much as "not as fun" flying. Hopefully I won't be called an ass wipe fucktard for saying that
. For me, I would rather enjoy my work more than make lots of money. Everyone's fun/money ratio requirement is different. What makes one person happy may not work for someone else.Additionally, having options to fall back on helps to ease over some of the bad aspects of any job. It's amazing how much less things bother you if you have alternatives readily available. The national guard and reserves provide the opportunity to pursue and engage in more than one career field.