Originally Posted by greaper007

Frankly, I only think the military route is a good choice now if you want to primarily fly in the military. The Air Force is what, a 12 year commitment? 10 years for the Navy/Marines? At that point the airlines would be a paycut and you'd only be 8-10 years away from a retirement. You mentioned helos, if you don't have fixed wing turbine PIC time, your helo time is pretty much worthless for the airlines. I flew with a few former blackhawk pilots at colgan, they had to get their time at a regional just like any civilian guy. I have an uncle that was a navy helo pilot, he works in management for GE now. He didn't want to go from the Navy to a $19,000 regional salary.

My dad is an SWA capt and a former Navy pilot. He used to push the military route for me, but he only had a 5 year commitment and was out before he was 30. Now he says that just about everyone new he flys with is from a civilian background.