Originally Posted by CoastieFlier

Although our fleet is mostly helos, we are hurting bad right now for fixed wing pilots. Even to the point where we have a lot of DCA transition requests from pilots of other services (ranging from P3 pilots to F18 guys).

If you want to be a Coast Guard fixed wing pilot, there isn't any better of a time than now to give it a shot. I will concur with the previous post that it's not all flying. Lots of collaterals and paperwork but you can still easily get 400+ hours per year if you desire to.

The odds of getting Air Station Washington and flying the G5 or Challenger are pretty slim and normally reserved for our more experienced pilots. Right now the majority of fixed wingers are flying Falcons and Hercs and that's what you are getting out of flight school. Over the next 5+ years or so you will see the Falcon start to be replaced by the CASA.

There's an office saying that you should "fly helo's if you want to rescue people and get lots of medals, fly fixed wing if you want to rack up fixed wing time and eat a lot of box lunches" and there's a lot of truth to it.

Good luck whichever path you choose!