Helicopter pilot

[manitou1]

I'm not a pilot, but I have worked with helicopters for about 15 years. I've worked with them in wildfire, spraying, surveying the Canadian/US border with the State Department, and finally doing wildlife capture work. On many of the jobs I was making more money than the pilots. Most of the pilots had to spend large parts of the year working away from home and seemed to be pretty stressed out much of the time. I was pretty sure I wanted to be a helicopter pilot until I got to know a handful of them, and not one of them recommended that I go that route. Several of the ones that I have stayed in touch with have transitioned to fixed wing or something non aviation related. Although, some days I wish I had.

Here is a video I put together of a whitetail deer capture project in South Dakota. We caught about 650 deer over that month and I of course picked the best shots and deer wrecks to put in the video. I know some of them look pretty rough, but deer are tough animals and only a few out of the 650 ended up hurt or dead.

I bet they have some great "captured by aliens" stories, lol.

 

[kansasdad]

Tommy Lee Jones flies helicopters?? (last photo in the Filson catalog)


My veterinarian father practiced for several years in Durango CO. He investigated the option to do ambulatory service with a helo, which would allow him to jump drainages quickly, as the crow flies, rather than drive highways that followed the valley floor, and then drive up the next river valley.

 

[longbow51]

One of the more core jobs out there.
Seems like a lot of $ up front, but unlimited adventure.
Besides the not being able to smoke chron part.
That would suck.

Doug, enjoy your posts, but could you throw in a little English once in a while? Guessing chron is not something I possess

 

[KB_]

I was going to google it here at work, but I decided that probably wasent a good idea.

 

[DouglasR]

I was going to google it here at work, but I decided that probably wasent a good idea.

Sorry Scott.
Back on track.

 

[gouch]

My oldest daughter's FIL spent 20 years as a Coast Guard helicopter pilot and now works for a local company that does mostly helicopter logging and firefighting. This time of year, he is mostly firefighting then he spends a lot of time training other pilots the rest of the year. He makes real good money, but he has a lot of years as a pilot. Don't know what the starting wage is.

 

[blueridge]

Scott, you could specialize in drop camps for hunters on land-locked public lands. Everyone needs a niche.

 

[TheTone]

I’ve seen this in Arizona. Not sure how the cowboys afford it running the skinniest cows I’ve ever seen