Originally Posted by G~man

Yep---I fly helicopters for a living, primarily contracted to the US Forest Service. I started at age 18 when I joined the Air Force, but was not a pilot---I flew in the back operating mission equipment hunting submarines. As the cold war ended, I got out in 1990, and paid for my own helicopter training at a civilian flight school. I then worked for the school as an instructor for a while, and have since done lots of different things ranging from flying for NBC in San Francisco, a sheriff department, tours in Hawaii for 7 years, and have been flying fire contracts full time now for just over five years.....

Me on a fire: