Helicopter Industry is *still* a joke  

This industry has always been a joke. When I was a kid back in the early 1970's, Rotor&Wing Magazine published an article called "The Hirelings" lamenting the bad pay and lousy benefits helicopter pilots endured. But yet pilots (mostly Vietnam vets at the time) were lining up to take those jobs. For the most part, they believed that it was all they deserved and, not for nuthin', all they were capable of.  (And perhaps they/we were right.) Even with that in mind, I entered the industry and eventually began flying commercially in 1982. Things were no better. I went to the Gulf of Mexico in 1987. By 1995 the starting salary at that (yellow and black) company was only $25,500/year.  But that company never had a problem filling the new-hire class slots.

I guess it's that helicopters are so damn much fun to fly. It keeps the dreamers coming in the door and then coming back very week. Then, unless you specialize, like going into Utility (or into management, something most of us are are spectacularly unsuited for), you make an "okay" living...maybe. But you end up resentful of how we "highly-trained professionals" are treated.  I have always said that flying helicopters is a great job but a lousy career. If you feel that you must put up with the negatives just so you can do this crazy thing we do, hey go for it. But don't try to convince anyone - not me nor even yourself - that it's a good career.