Just to add and update to what some of Crusty said with respect to military piloting.
Initial enrollment requires you to agree to 10 years post wings so quite a commitment. Degrees are still required to be a pilot in the CAF, if you don’t have one they’ll pay for it but then you owe more time.
I assume Crusty flew in a different community then I do because in the Tactical Aviation community we rarely fly real IFR due to the limitations of the Bell 412. No lack of bad weather flying opportunities (I don’t consider this a good thing though). Definitely requires creativity and thinking outside of the box too
I agree that we fly less and our skills don’t necessarily translate to the vfr world though. IFR, offshore and fixed-wing airlines are probably a better fit in civilian flying transitions. I’ve found that flying variety, different work opportunities and deployments are the advantages.
As a family man now sometimes I can’t help but think and laugh how airlines would have been so much easier. Not advocating for it though, probably even more boring than I imagine.
Good luck.
