#1 Helicopter Check Ride How I Became A Helicopter Pilot

My story and how I got involved in all this helicopter craziness, I'm pretty sure Christmas back In the early 70s, when I opened up the vertibird box under the Christmas tree, that thing was the coolest. And I flew it till it almost wouldn't fly anymore. So growing up, I always had an interest in learning to fly. Didn't think it was something I would ever really do. And I also wanted to be a cop. I wanted to be a police officer. I didn't go to college. I get out of school thinking I'm just going to go get me a job making a bunch of money in a factory. And that didn't take long to figure out that factory life was not for me. So I first chased after the police officer dream and made it in my early 20s. During that time as a police officer, I got to be appointed as the department firearms instructor, which was cool. Which important part of the story, they sent me to an instructor development course, which, although that was for law enforcement, it's about how people learn. And it's amazing how much of that I've taken over into the helicopter instructor environment. So I'm doing the police officer thing, firearms instructor thing. And pretty quickly I'm not really, I guess, happy. I'm wanting something else. And I start a towing service while I'm still a cop. And I started out going to have just one little truck and kind of mess around the side. Then pretty soon I needed a bigger truck, and then I wanted another bigger truck on top of that. And then I wanted a bigger truck on top of that. And that went on and on. And actually to back up just a bit, I actually got in the fire department before I got in the police department. Really super busy between fire department, police department, wrecker service, early 20s, going like a madman, chasing all these dreams. And while I'm in my early 20s, my mom ends up diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. So we took care of her for the five years that she was sick. And during the process, I was the strong one. I was okay. And then after she passed away, my life kind of fell apart. And I realized I had all these jobs and I had cars and trucks, and I'd been all about material possessions. And I realized that it didn't matter how many buildings you owned and how many cars and trucks you had, that all those things can really mean nothing. So I go through a bout of depression, and I make one of the smartest decisions I ever made. I decided to go to counseling. And the counseling was one of the best things I ever did, because it gave me a new direction and made me realize a lot of things that I hadn't realized prior to that. So also start listening to motivational tapes. And as I'm going through this training, the one day he says, okay, shut the tape off, sit down and write a list of 10 things that are dreams of yours that you think you will never accomplish, Things you really want to do that you think are just without of reach. So I did. I turned off the tape, sat down, wrote out the 10 things that were dreams of mine that I thought I would never accomplish. Turn the tape back on. He says, okay, now make one move towards one of those goals. Whether it's make a phone call, go buy a magazine, whatever the case is, no matter how small, make a decision to at least make one small step towards one of those dreams. Well, One of those 10 was learning to fly helicopters. So I started dabbling in the idea and I'm checking around looking for lessons, and everywhere I would check, they were all at least a couple hours away. And it seemed like a far off dream. Didn't have the money, didn't have the time, didn't have anywhere to go. Then I think the next big thing that changed everything for me was a day at the Indy 500. I went along with my sister that wanted me to go. I didn't really want to go, but somebody had canceled on her and I went along, even though I was being in pain about it, I didn't really want to go. But once I got there and as they started getting ready for that race that day, there's cars going on the track and tow trucks going around drying the track. And I noticed all these helicopters coming and going. So I'm eyeballing the helicopters, watching all this stuff going on. And when that race started, it was the first time I ever really understood the term breathtaking. When those cars go flying past so fast and with so much noise, I literally couldn't breathe. So that day I just knew I wanted something more, I wanted something different, and I really wanted to chase the helicopter dream. So I finally make it to my first helicopter lesson. It's a two and a half hour drive to get there, and my first couple lessons. The guy was a jerk. I really just kind of wanted to go up for a ride and enjoy myself. And he starts trying to get me to fly it the first day and yelling at me when I don't understand what he's asking me for. And I didn't go back for six months. After those first two flights, actually, I think it was closer to a year before I went back. So when I go back, there's a young man there who basically says, that guy you flew with when you were here before, he was a real jerk. And I said, you know what? I'm glad you said that, because that's what I thought, and I didn't want to say it. And he said, let's forget that guy. Let's go out today, start from scratch, and then we'll go from there. And he says, you don't even have to fly today if you don't want to. And I said, you know what? That would be awesome. He said, I'll just take you out, show you the maneuvers, we'll have some fun, and we'll come back and talk about it. And he made it a completely entirely different experience for me. So then I'm motivated. So I start finding ways to generate the money, because we all know the money is the hard thing or is for most of us. And I do the typical. I fly, fly, fly. I don't worry about ground school. The instructor I have doesn't really push ground school. And I'm flying, and I'm doing really well in the helicopter, and I change the structures and go to a different flight school just to try something out. And this guy takes me out, we fly together, and he's like, wow, you're doing really well. He goes, you're ready for your check ride. What did you score on your written test? And I'm like, what written test? He's like, oh, my God, you're kidding me. You're this far along in your flight training, and you haven't even taken the written yet? And I'm like, no. He goes, okay, so we got some work to do. And we go in and sit down, and he goes, what do you know about weather? And I look out the window and I see big, puffy clouds outside. And I say, well, I see clouds in the sky. And he's like, oh, my God, we've got some work to do. So there's where I learned firsthand about getting behind on the ground knowledge. So we start working on the ground knowledge. The fly in gets held up. So in turn, it takes me more time to get ready. We try jamming out and getting it done. Take the checkride before. I'm really, really confident on the ground, and I end up failing the checkride on the oral portion. And hands down, all these years later, I know it's because I just wasn't prepared enough And I was the first student for this new instructor. He's one of my best friends to this day. He was a great instructor, but I was his first student, which is very common that the first person you send doesn't make it through their checkride. So after that first failure, I went home with my tail between my legs. I really struggled with it. And then I didn't go back for like six months. And then when I got fired up to go back and try it again, I thought, this time around, I'm gonna. There's no way I'm gonna fail that oral. And that's where the notebook comes into play. I had all kinds of notes from the different places I'd flown and all these books scattered everywhere. And I thought, man, I wish I had one place I could study. I just wanted one place I could sit down and just kind of go through things. So I created my notebook, get all my ratings, I go out and start working in the helicopter industry. And of course, when I started, I couldn't even believe I was an instructor. And I can remember my first couple lessons thinking I don't have a clue what to even do. And I just decided to just get started. And I kind of just took little bit of everything I'd learned from all the different people that I'd flown with and somehow just kind of come up with my own way of training that worked for me. I had a lot of success as a new instructor, did really well with getting people through checkrides. And I was like the ground guy. I think it was my law enforcement background. I didn't do well in school, struggled to get through and get my diploma. But everything changed when I went to the police academy because that was something I wanted to do. So I was a lot more serious about studying. So in turn, I became like the reg expert and I also became the ground guy. Nobody else wanted to do ground, and for some reason, I just kind of wanted to go that extra mile for people to help them get through the ground school. And along the way, my students would say, hey, you should start a training manual. And I'd laugh and we'd joke about it. But as it ends up now, we have helicopter online ground school that I created out of all this so that I do the instructor thing for four or five years as I build my time. During that time, I got to do a lot of different things. Pipeline, patrol, photography, instructing, 135 charter, a lot of cool stuff. Then I moved into the EMS field once I had the time, and I'VE always stayed active as an instructor, but once I was in the EMS industry, I just kind of missed the training end of things. The EMS job was cool. Over the five year period, I just really kind of got bored with it. I honestly just didn't really like going out and flying point A to point B and then back again. Never been able to really do much with training and not being able to do emergency procedures and really working with people and training, I just missed it. So I feel like it's worked out for me in the long run just due to all the struggles I had along the way. Like most everybody does, everybody has their own story, and most all of us struggle in one shape, form or fashion. And I think my first failure and all the struggles along the way just really helped me shape what I do today.