you say you got a bunch of money and good paying job and you still cry because somebody you know made a better desicion.

He said "best buddy", ya nit-wit.

So a pilot landing day or night around wires, fires, building, high gross weight, limited performance, etc should be paid less than someone who land a controlled field with almost no danger.  Has an extra pilot, with autopilot and an entire system build around the aircraft to make it safer.

Who has the greater responsibility? Who has the greater skill level? Who is in greater danger.

To recalibrate your brain to value, not risk. Think Bill Gates. Not Jeb Corliss.

That's a terrible comparison.

We are talking about professionals, not one off thrill seekers, or software developer.

But hay, if that's what you got to do nullify your skills for low pay... have a great day.

Is it so hard to understand that you get paid for your value?

he's paying alimony and with five kids, two of whom still paying child support on due to kids in college until they are 28 years old.  In addition he is secretly paying off two flight attendants who also had a kid each from him.  He also has a gây lover former co-pilot who still visits him regularly.

So you see... I'm pretty sure you are better off and richer than your airpilot buddy pilot friend who is being forced to retire.

he probably wouldn't be retiring at 55 with millions if that were true you stupid idiot

yeah they would have to kick me out of the place if I only had a few million at 55. this is the part where you tell me that 3.8 mil is not enough to live on.

Curious forays notwithstanding.

We all make choices. I fly both fixed and rotor, to me fixed are boring. Made a lot of money in helicopters. My gross income last year was a little over $950,000 all but $130,000 was made in helicopters. I know somebody will throw the BS flag. The fact that you dont think it's possibble is your limiting factor and why you will never do it. I could have retired years ago,currently 57, and like flying. Good luck in the new year.

you should have just said you made a billion last year. I mean, were taking 2600 a day, every single day of the year lol

I won't call bs.but how did you make 820 large in a helicopter last year.

a lack of imagination is the reason that you're not making a million dollars a year flying. it's not that there is no possible way anybody is going to pay you that much.

Paid based on what you think you can get someone to pay you. You get paid on what you bring in. On average employees bring in about 3 times what they are paid. Imagine if you did the same job, but were your own boss. You could keep the 2 thirds your boss is currently keeping.

expenses though. Here all this time all I had to do was go buy a helicopter and great riches would soon follow. 

He might have done 950k if he's an operator tricking folks to lease back there helos to his llc new start up with investors because he's got 6 bankruptclies for all his past ventures during every downturn 

Want to make money, or fly a Helicopter? In case you didn't know it, helicopters in particular, and aviation in general are the hardest way to make money.

aviation probably isn't any different than any other business as far as success or failure. people just love to repeat that because who knows why.

In transport anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUduBmvQ_4

 p>

it's an almost absolute certainty you completely misunderstood whatever that guy was yammering on about. 

Is that?
http://originalforum.justhelicopters.com/DisplayMsgJH.asp?ForumID=23&Msgid=2715479&page=&title=it%20because%20he%27s%20an%20AIRLINE%20pilot,%20not%20a%20HELICOPTER%20pilot

any idea what mine is? it's a bit more than his.

Choices, choices, choices....decisions, decisions, decisions.  Hindsight always wins. 

I am in a very similar situation as you.  Dual rated, could have gone to the airlines in the late 80's but they were not hiring and starting pay back then was $1100/month.  26 years in EMS now make 118k base, net worth about 1.2mil.  Good friend just retired from United after 30 years. He took a Covid package deal. He is 58, owns 2 homes, an airplane and doesnt have to worry about $$.  For what its worth, he was miserabe in his job the past 10 years or so.

Yeah, I had several opportunities to go 121, however I'm fairly happy with my financial situation and have been very happy for the most part doing this job for the past 26 years. Especially going home after every shift.

It all comes down to choices and quality of life.  The grass isn't alway greener, even though the money sometimes is....

I started flying HEMS with Jimmy and the boys in control at CJ.  $35k a year.  Was told when I hired on it I made less than $50K with OT that I was a lazy pilot.  Sometime around 2006 got a raise to $40K as a base pay.  AMC bought CJ the next year and I went to $44K.

Left AMC in 2012 having closed out the year at around $92K with OT.  Always worked 30 minutes from the house and never got furloughed. 

Buddy of mine is a SW Captain.  Makes dang good money now but he flew a lot of crap in conditions that I would not want to be in just to get a chance at a right seat at a regional.  He commuted almost a full day each time he was on the flight schedule just to get a chance to flip switches for $25K back then.  Watched his kids grow up with his wife's boyfriend.

I knew at 16 the money difference between helicopters and trying for the airlines but I like flying helicopters so thats what I went with.  I've been lucky enough to make decent money with helicopters and I have friends who went the fixed wing route and make a lot more than me but no one ever lied to me about what the future held in the regard.  

As far as 135 EMS pay Vs. Airlines, I get it.  They will never be able to compete with any of them other than Regionals, although I think starting pay shoud be at least 85k with 4-6% annual raises.

One of the biggest discrepancies is the lack of retirement funding with HEMS companies compared to 121.  I have been with Metreaux, and although they have stepped up a bit, they are only at a 75% match up to 7% of my pay.  Most of my tenure with them they were at 25% up to 5%.  Very hard to build a significant savings with that, especially when my pay was around th 40k mark.

It would be gret if they were able to get up to the 100% match at  12-18% where 121 starts.   

Every shift is great. It works well until they close your base.

chances bro

I'm another dual rated pilot and have a lot of experience in both.  And i will say that both have advantages and disadvantages.   I started flying helos for 25k a year in 1988 and the most I ever made was 70k flying AG before swappig to fixed wing and started at the bottom again making 17$ an hour my first year.  That is one advantage you have flying helicopters is that if you don't like employer A you can go to employer B and probably get somewhat of a lateral pay rate.   Not like the guys at TWA that went to American and got stapled to the bottom of the list.  The airlines are a seniority based trap.  Swap airlines and you start out at 1st year pay.  I have always said that there is no pilot shortage but there is a shortage of airlines that understand the law of supply and demand.  You need pilots?  Well pay up!

This year I grossed over 300K as a 777 capt but as good as that sounds if you average out the 10 years I was at the regionals making less than 70k a year i'm still behind.   As a helicopter pilot I was never unemployed and I have been lucky in the airlines to have never been unemployed either but I know several pilots that have gone through multiple furloughs and have lost their houses and gone bankrupt.   They might have made a lot of money but they needed it to get through furloughs.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to both, Airlines have commuting, crashpads and endless reserve and unless you are senior your schedule can just be miserable.  Helicopters have weeks offshore stuck on a platform or weeks on end living in the woods on a fire or stuck at an EMS base with people that have never flown but yet know more than you.

As far as making 950K a year in a helicopter the only way I could imagine that possible is as a SAG pilot or possibly flying AG with a lot of work and a lot of flying.  

so you made 6-700k at the regionals in 10 years. if you were a helicopter pilot in those ten years, you might have made a million. so you are "behind" 300-400k. in 2-3 years, you will have closed the gap. in 10 years, you will make over 3 mil. unless you want to bustass flying ag, you will make 3 times the average helicopter pilot. it takes longer to get there but over a career, you will still make 2-3 times what a helicopter pilot makes. why is this so hard to understand? because some people don't want to understand. and no matter what, buy a home you can pay for when a furlough comes. if you make that kind of money and can't plan enough to survive a 6-12 month furlough, you are an idiot that deserves to go broke.

There is a huge problem you gloss over.  Making 17 per hr in 1988 when the dollar was worth more and inflation was much lower, aloud you to live a better life.

Wages have not kept up with inflation as well as the pay with skill level.

AMC starting paying in the early 2000's was 35K-42K and in 2008 was only 52K.  While housing, food, cars, etc are all up.

One major difference between the airlines and helicopters is what the military did to civilian pay.  When people left the military with degrees, (Officers) Air Force, Navy, Marines and went onto the airlines.  They had more options because of education.  When you look at Vietnam and non degree'd pilot like Warrents coming back from war had less options and they took low paying jobs and depressed the industry for years.  We are still having negative effects of this today.  This is no slight on military pilots and there skill or action of duty.  These are market pressures that effected the whole industry, but until people quit taking jobs for low pay, no union is going to help this because they set the bar low, we all suffer.

And before you say I'm a civilian puke that did not serve... you'd be wrong

airline pilots worked for free in 1988. inflation is irrelevant as is the rest of your post.

Not only did you not back up argument with facts, or anything.  You have no idea what your talking about.

Everything in my post is factually true.

Your post is a mish mash of stupid.

i made 17$ an hour starting at a regional in 2006, that was after I had flown helos and started at the bottom of the fixed wing chain.

not on money but the life u want to live, and the environment u want to fly in.

Airline pilots fly with instruments, a gray windshield, and land to the same old runways for 40 years.  Sound interesting?  Go for it.

Since this is a heli forum the opposite is obvious.

Helicopter operators tend to be a tad unstable so if that's ur choice keep a good money reserve because u will be changing employers.  The best stability is corporate but that can be similar to airline tedium.

Just jump in and figure it for yourself.