Lol! I was wondering when that story would break.
They're not using a "loophole" though. That's just the way the Post 9/11 GI Bill is written up. Your college and flight training is paid for at enormously inflated prices on the backs of the taxpayer. They pile on things like mountain qual, NVG qual or even a B206 "Lab" to get even more money from the tax payer.
There are a few problems with this new found career for the aspiring enlisted vet getting out. First, the only job that 250-300 CFI will qualify for is a CFI position making crap pay. As stated in the article, you have a bottleneck forming. The schools would like you to believe that you go thru the course and there's a job at the end of it. Reality is that most don't complete it and the ones that do are just a dime a dozen competing against other vets for that CFI job.
The second problem is, over the last decade or so, we pushed students thru Army flight school at a break neck pace. Over twice the amount when I went thru just prior to 9/11. Now, what are all those guys doing? They're getting forced out from getting passed over for promotion and in the case of the OH-58D, they're entire airframe is going away. All of these guys will be filling the police, EMS, oil & gas jobs. They'll be few jobs left for these GI Bill vets who stick it out and make it to the magical 2,000 hrs. Even if they do make it that far, unless they have 1,000 hrs turbine, they won't get hired. Not to mention for the military pilot, that's turbine time actually applied towards a job in the military and not doing circles in a pattern.
What I tell young guys wanting to go the helo GI Bill path is that it's a good way to get your ratings but don't drink the cool aid the schools are selling you on job placement. You have to be realistic. You're going to go thru some sacrifices to get your foot in the door. You also need to accept that at the end of that 300K education, you might very well be stuck with some expensive ratings looking for a job that won't even pay your bills. You could actually make far more by staying in the military.
Personally, I think they're chances would be better doing the airline route but that's just me.
