• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

No more 6 year flight commitment

Status
Not open for further replies.
I suspect that there are more jobs out in the civilian world for helo pilots than jets/multiprop. The Marines probably want to "lock in" helo pilots to help alleviate potential future shortages.
 
Sao Paolo seems to need a lot of helo pilots. Helipads seem to be sprouting on top of every building down there.

I'm making it clear, I'm only speculating, but it seems to me, even with cuts with govt spending, its more realistic to get a well paying job flying a helo for a news dept., a police/sherriff's dept., or for EMS.

As opposed to fixed wing, I don't imagine airlines are hiring, unless you want to start for a regional carrier making 30K a year.

As a tribute to Arnie's victory, I'm including my old signature.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mongol General: ...Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!
Mongol General: That is good.
 
Actually, regional carriers start at about $20k a year, not $30k.

Currently, the aviation industry is in a downward spiral and my company (one of the best and largest regionals - ACA) is trying to fight a hostile takeover from a bottom tier regional called MESA. If that goes through, you can expect a typical 3rd year salary of $39k to be cut by about 30%. (To put this takeover in military terms, imagine the Marine Corps being suddenly considered too expensive and being assigned to the French Army....)

Helicopter jobs start in the mid $30k's and range up to $60k. The oil companies tend to pay more than EMS or Sheriff's departments.

Unless you can get on with Southwest, AirTran, or JetBlue (and remember there are at least 10,000 furloughed airline pilots on the street with thousands of multi-engine jet hours), the aviation industry - both airline and helo - is downright ugly.

And if the Marines wanted to "lock in" helo pilots, the Corps might consider giving its rotary pilots the same $25k/year bonus as fixed wing (I think the Marine rotary wing bonus is only $12k a year) At least the Navy treats all its pilots to the same $25k year bonus.
 
if they are having "problems recruiting for jets", then that's probably good because all the "gun" squadrons here are over T/O with pilots ... nobody is getting out right now

semper fi

Originally posted by phrogdriver
...
It costs less to put someone through the helo pipeline, so I don't understand why the payback should be the same as jets, unless they're having problems recruiting for jets--whoa, I think I'm onto something there!
Click to expand...
 
I second Daedalus' comment. One thing I vaguely remember from my four years of business school is that everything is cyclical - so, following that logic, I should be good to go in a couple of years.
 
Going back to the original post - I just contracted Air today for OCC 185. The papers I signed still had an 8 yr commitment for fixed wing jet, and a 6 yr commitment for all other airframes.
 
I know this is an old post, but I had a quick question.

I don't know if there was a definate answer to what the commitment for USMC pilots was. Is the commitment for helos and props still 6 years?

Also, flight training is about 2 years correct? So if the commitment was 6 years, you would actually be in the Marine Corps for two years right?

Also, if you were a USMC pilot on active duty, would you be able to transfer over to the reserves? Meaning would you be able to spend say 4 years on active duty and the rest in the reserves?
 
You can only go reserves AFTER finishing your full active duty committment. You can be assigned to a reserve unit as a full time instructor before then, but you can't get out of your active duty obligation.

The bonus for different airframes comes AFTER you've already done your AD obligation AND are selected for major. In exchange for extending through 16 years of commissioned service, you can get $7000/yr for helos, $25000/yr for C130/strike. Those are the current numbers. The $25 has been constant for a long time. The helo bonus was $12K, but since we stay in in greater numbers, the Corps didn't think it had to bribe us as much this year.

Committments are after school, so a 6 year obligation means you'll have about 7 1/2 to 8 years by the time you get out. Obviously an 8 yr jet committment means 2 more years, plus their school is at least 6 mo longer.
 
Interesting to note that the Navy gives $25k per year regardless of platform (helo, prop, or jet) and it does not stop at year 16.

Also, I wonder what the current retention rate is among jets right now considering the airlines are not hiring - I doubt if it is significantly different than helos.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top