To the Op,

Do not leave your pension for a flying job. Anybody who is an LEO or fire has a great pension(well new hires not so much so but still better than 95% of the public). Don't believe the hype of "you gotta get in now" to a professional flying gig. If your working a fireman 56 sched you have plenty of time to fly part time. Having that extra pension with the medical you're more than likely offered at retirement will help once you start flying full time. Trust me, as someone who left public service, went 121 and now back to public service, your better off where your at until you finish your 20.

Yep ......and you were prolly young enough to go back to public service......not sure what job your talkin about, but here we have an age 36 cut off . For me....being 34.....if I leave early, there would be no saying "oops" and goin back!

You have a wonderful problem to have. Fly on the side, build your ratings. Earning your CFI will be the best situation for you. There are tons of schools that would let you teach on your spare time. Believe me, teaching students is an amazing experience. When the time comes, you may not even want to deal with the headache of working for a regional. There are so many different flying opportunities for a guy like you. Finish what you started with your current career. You might even want to look into flying EMS; after you have all your ratings you stand a great chance at getting sponsored for you commercial rotor. Good Luck!

EMS would be really neat......I've done fly alongs with the local air medical service here, all their pilots are ex Vietnam , and a few ex Desert Storm.....the services here realllly like military guys. Kinda cool some of the stuff we did.....I'm sittin there white knuckles as we are landing on a rooftop downtown 6 stories up.....then to look over and see the pilot with a toothpick just as laid back and relaxed as on a living room couch lol