The airline money is good, because the airline lifestyle sucks.  

this isn't widely recognized. airline flying is a hell of a lot more like work than a lot of other kinds of flying. show  up and on the go with no breaks and little if any time for food for basically 12 to 14 hours. repeat for 3 to 5 days, sleeping if you can in hotels. get 3 to five days off, repeat.

everybody talks up the guy who makes 300K a year and flies 10 days a month to do it. what they don't tell you or don't know is that out of every guy who starts down the airline road, maybe 1 out of 10 gets those golden jobs and then only after a life like i've described above for maybe 10 or 15 years.

not saying the lure of the big iron isn't real. not saying the money isn't better at the end than with helicopters, because it is. but you will work like hell to earn it, and the majority of you won't get to it for one reason of the other. sh*t happens in life and it can happen to you. 

having said all that, my advice--? hell, give it a try. you will always wonder if you don't. just don't expect that you are going to the promised land, because you ain't. you're going to work.