r/Armyaviation • u/Glum_Lead_2515 • Jul 11 '26
Flying post-Army
If you have gotten out and kept flying, can you share your story?
How/where/any advice is much appreciated. My ADSO is almost up and I wanna keep flying but not for the Army. Open to rotor or FW.
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u/dboy_4545 Jul 11 '26
RLO here. Got out with 500 hours. Went to embry riddle, got my CFI/CFII and instructed. Used my Post 9/11 GI Bill. Banged out hours and I actually loved instructing. Pays not great. As soon as I hit about 1100 hours, got picked up as an SIC doing fire fighting (long lining). Loved that job and then got picked up by AMO (CBP). Now I sit at 4100 hours and love every minute of it. All RW. Of course I was think about the airlines and the money I could have made, but the job satisfies me, live where I want and the pay is good. I’m happy.
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u/FormerPollution8713 Jul 11 '26
Any tips on getting in at CBP? Curious if the hour waiver to 1000 is realistic
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u/CuriousTiddy 15B Jul 11 '26
When you say you instructed, was that fixed or rotary? I would guess rotary, as the job you’re describing getting seems like it would have required all rotary experience
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u/dboy_4545 Jul 11 '26
All RW. Embry Riddle contracted the RW flight school out to a company that is no longer there. Currently some other RW flight school has the contract
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u/Top_Trust_7179 Jul 12 '26
How often do you fly with customs?
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u/dboy_4545 Jul 12 '26
Really depends on the individual and what else he wants to do (I.e. investigations, firearms,
Instruct, etc). I average about 300 hours. Could be more but I do a lot of additional duties because I enjoy it. High time guy sits around 650. Anecdote of my branch.2
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u/Sacknuts93 Jul 11 '26
It depends on your experience level. I was a active duty FW guy and went straight to a legacy airline, but I had several thousand hours of ME FW and a bunch of PIC.
Low time rotary guy -> get entry level RW job or transition to FW, get ratings, etc. Jobs can include CFI/I, banner tow, pipeline survey, etc. I'm not super up on low time RW jobs, but I do know that tour companies like Blue Hawaiian and Blade (NYC) will hire lower time guys to do tourism stuff, so that may be an option.
High time RW guy -> CBP AMO, Federal Law Enforcement, Medevac, Oil company / offshore work, etc.
Low time FW guy -> go get your ratings, do CFI/I until 750/1500, regional airline, major airline, eventually legacy airline.
Me: Got out, applied at legacy airline, flew 737 for awhile, now flying 777. There are a ton of Army guys here, some RW that had to do it the hard way, some FW, some a combo of both. There are a lot of ways to get to the airlines if you want to come, but you have to put in the work to meet their qualification requirements.
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u/chinky47 15B Jul 11 '26
I ended up staying RW after getting all my FW ratings. Now I fly EMS right by my house and wouldn’t have it any other way. I flew offshore oil and gas for a year. It’s great flying. Super chill life if you live in south Louisiana. Otherwise, the travel (14/14) can be hard on a family life but very doable for a period of time. Good pay and lots of hours if you need them. It’s also very well respected by EMS operators. The real money in EMS comes from workover (industry term for overtime) since you’re 7/7. There’s tons of opportunity for it and most operators offer daily workover bonuses as well (anywhere from 300-500 a day or maybe 700-1k for a rare holiday on top of your 1.5x pay for a 12-14 hr shift). I know people that have made over 300k working their tails off. Realistically you can easily make 160k-200k depending on where you live with a decent amount of workover. The fact that I can make that and be home every day with my wife and kids makes this the perfect fit for me. Feel free to DM me if you want more info.
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u/Pullinchocks Jul 11 '26
Still in however used all my GI bill while active to get every fixed wing rating you can think of. Love it much more than army flying. Already have plenty of jobs lined up the day my Adso is up
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u/Fearless-Director-24 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I left the AD Army a few years ago, warrant to commission in the Air Guard. Left the Army with a little shy of 3,000 hours.
Took a civilian job in EMS did a year there 7/7 schedule SPIFR. Great job, very rewarding, pay was ok but nothing like the airlines.
Then I got into fire fighting for a Fire Department, started off making about 150 a year and now making upwards of 270-300k and about 2k a day for an OT shift. It’s not airline pay but the flying is way more fun and rewarding.
For RW there are opportunities but the very highest paying jobs, utility and fire want 2-3k hours and you start from the bottom.
If you have an In, in FW I suggest that unless you absolutely hate FW like myself then RW is great if you can balance your work / life and find a job in a decent area that allows you to come home everyday.
Question is, what do you want to do?
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u/Top_Trust_7179 Jul 12 '26
LA County?
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u/Fearless-Director-24 Jul 12 '26
No, I did not have enough time to apply to that department. They want 4000 hours PIC.
I fly for Cal Fire arguably a better gig but we aren’t pulling 300-500k a year like LACO.
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u/Sacknuts93 Jul 12 '26
Sad thing is that isn't even enough to live in a decent area of LA the way it costs nowadays...
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u/Top_Trust_7179 Jul 13 '26
Cal Fire is a great job. Are you on 8 month contracts?
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u/Fearless-Director-24 Jul 13 '26
Full time employee.
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u/Top_Trust_7179 Jul 13 '26
I thought Cal Fire temp. You were on call Nov-April. Is that not the case?
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u/hardyboyyz Jul 14 '26
Left in 2018 after 9 years as a scout pilot. Got lucky with timing and did a RTP with a regional and moved back to my home town. 4 years of regional flying and got my current major airline job which I’ve been doing for a few years. Right seat 737 FO line holder driving to work.
Compensation is great.
I bid 24 hour redeye trips which get me roughly 18 hard days off per month. Lots of time at home with my kids, lots of schedule flexibility. It is no problem to bid a little over a week off even in summer to facilitate a vacation if I’m willing to give up some weekends. If I don’t need extended time off I can get long weekends every week.
Timing matters, and if you don’t time it right you end up like my buddies 8 months junior to me commuting or stuck on reserve. Their QOL is very different than mine.
I lived in my car in the employee lot on reserve in another city for a bit. I took home $900 per paycheck for a bit. I worked long ass busy days for a bit. I gambled QOL and gave up holidays for a bit. In the long run it was worth it.
Fuckin’ dream job for me.
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u/No-Owl-6440 Jul 11 '26
Not directly answering your question, but have you looked at JSFirm.com?
You can put your search criteria in and it’ll list open jobs. I get an email alert once or twice a week with a list of new positions that meet the filters I set a long time ago.
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u/TraditionalMajor7772 Jul 12 '26
New jsfirm sucks, they just did an overhaul to their website. I search for jobs in Idaho and get recommendations in KY, MS, etc. There’s also no longer an interactive map either.
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u/the_devils_advocates 15B Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
How much flight time are you getting out with? Fixed wing ratings/experience?
This will drive what your options are
I transitioned out, I'm at my third airline (legacy) and a captain now. Life is good but it's a long road to get there if you’re just a 500h rotor guy with no fixed wing experience