Murdoughnut said:
The US military are not training the helicopter pilots in the numbers they used to. The training pass rate is now much lower than it was during Viet Nam where you basicly had to wreak the helicopter and injury the instructor to be busted out. And the government is requiring a much longer commitment out of their pilots. In some cases 8 to 10 years after flight training. Know of many heli pilots that have gone the civilian route completely. So it is possible. It is harder to transition for two big reasons. First is the fact that you would have less helicopter time than a straight helicopter pilot. Second is the predgidise (sp) of many helicopter chief pilots toward high time fixed wing pilots flying helicopters.
Flight instructing will build up your helicopter time. Or the best employment option of all, Being in the right place at the right time. I personnally know of two low time helicopter pilots that got hired to fly a G4 in one case and a CL604 in the other plus act as a fill in helicopter pilot. One in a S76 and the other a 206L3. The insurance companies accepted them with factory/flight safety. So it can happen. Not often though.
