badtransam97

I was hoping to get some opinions from you guys. I currently have my commercial se, private muli, and instrument. I have been trying to decide if I want to keep pursuing FW for a career, or switch to RW. I know the markets in both are tough right now for hiring, but I believe that RW would be a more "stable" work environment, such as little to no furlougs(EMS level anyway), alot of jobs are home every night, alot have set schedules, etc.. I have always enjoyed RW(my dad was prvt. rw pilot), but a part of me feels like I'd be making a mistake by going that route. I know some are very lucky and find work doing both, but I figure thats highly unlikely for most people. I think sometimes I'd miss flying up high in a FW, throught the soup, but just not sure. So I guess the reason Im posting this is, if given the choice, which one would you pick based on stabililty of employment, pay, enjoyment, QOL, etc..??

Blueskies21

You didn't say how many hours you have but if it's 250-300 ish you may have an issue switching to helo. A couple years ago you could get hired at a regional with a couple hundred hours, and even with a change to probably 800 hours, fixed wing is still far less than you'll need for helo. Helo flying is more like corporate aviation in that you'll probably need 3000-5000 hours to get a job, also a large portion of those ems jobs and other helo jobs want night vision goggle time. As far as career stability, who knows that's always a toss up. Much more likely to be home every night with an EMS job compared to any fixed wing except a few sweet corporate jobs.

In regard to the flight time, I know two guys who got out of the navy that were rotor wing drivers. They got out and didn't ahve enough flight time to get civilian RW jobs, so they went and got the fixed wing licenses and got hired at an airline.

I don't know how you go from 300 hours to even 1500 hours in a helo, maybe there are instructing jobs, not sure what other time building jobs there might be.

Sorry if that's not very helpful.

badtransam97

I only have around 275hrs tt right now. If I go the RW route, I'll have a "good" chance at doing CFI workl, and then transition into tours at a later point for the guy that's doing my training. There is just some part of me that thinks I'd miss flying the planes. I just want to do the one that is best for me in the long run I guess is what it boils down to..

esa17

Rotorwing flying is just as difficult, if not more so, to get into than FW flying.

If you really want your rotorwing with the hopes of making a career out of it I'd suggest the army.