Kenny Keller celebrates a student who passed his private pilot checkride after 65 hours of training, despite struggling with autorotations. The promised 40-hour package is a regulatory minimum, not realistic. Most pilots need 50 to 70 hours, with the national average around 60 to 70.
Questions this video answers
About 65 hours.
$49 per month.
Approximately 60–70 hours (he suggests expecting 50–70 and says national average is probably 60–70).
He calls 40 hours the regulatory minimum and says it's "far fetched" for many students—doable for some but not the average person.
Chapters
Congratulations to our ground school member, Steven. I'm gonna roll just a short clip here he sent me, but he was out in high winds and there was a lot of noise in this. So I'm just gonna show you the video he sent me. I'm not gonna ask him to redo it because of the wind, because of his excitement. You can see it in his face. He had just passed and he sent me an email and he was talking about how like the throwing in the towel guy who is now coming sounds like for sure the end of May, which is going to be exciting. And he said, like throwing in the towel guy. He goes, I hit a plateau at about 65 hours. And this pretty long email, he tells me about how much he struggled but how much he kept pushing forward. Auto rotations were his big trouble. And for a lot of people, auto rotations, this is the one that holds them back, right? I've seen it over the years. Just keep doing it. Right. And at the end of the email he did say, you know, if there's anything I can take away from this, he said, keep pushing forward. And he also said, right about the point you think you're giving up, that's about when you're close to being to the checkride. And I can, I can get both those statements. He's right. He kept pushing forward. He was almost ready to give up, but he got through it and went on a pretty high wind day and finished up his checkride. So it's a great story. Congratulations, Stephen, for sticking with it, working through the learning plateau, which he mentioned. I keep saying it's funny how when a topic comes up, how many people chime in. And 65 has been a number that's popping up lately where somebody's really struggling and needing to get through a plateau. So. But it's really interesting, right? And I know it's nice when you are struggling and you hear somebody else with a similar strugger struggle, a similar struggle. It helps you move on, right? And something else Stephen mentioned was he said, you know, the 40 hours is far fetched to get your rating. He was just like I was promised. It is far fetched for a lot of people. And I know there's some people that are going to chime in and go, oh, it is too doable in 40. It is doable in 40, but it almost never happens. The average person isn't going to get it done in 40. You might. And if you're lucky, great. And if it works out for you, time money wise and you can get in and get it done in 40, that's great, but don't expect it. You're going to be much happier if you expect 50, 60, 70 hours. And if you get done less than what you're thinking, great. But I think that might be a lot of problem too, right? When somebody starts out and they get going and they've been promised to be done in 40 and then they blame themselves. And this is one that I talked about years ago when I first started making videos. I hit that pretty heavy about the whole 40 hour thing. It's great to price someone a 40 hour package. Nothing wrong with that. But a flight school should tell you national average for private pilot is probably more like 60 to 70. 40 is a minimum. That's why it's called minimum. A flight school isn't doing you any favor when they say, oh, you'll get it at 40 hours and it's 15 grand or whatever the case. Is it cool if they say, well, here's the basic package, the minimum package, here's what it's going to cost you. Minimum could be more. It all depends on how your training goes. So anyway, happy Easter. I want to get this done and get out of here. I'll roll just that short clip again. I'm glad that Steven sent that in. The audio was. I really couldn't tell what he said and I tried cleaning up the audio, but that's okay. And I didn't want to ask him to do another video because I understand the excitement just after the checkride. And that's what we like. We like people to grab their camera right after their checkride, go back out to the helicopter and just give a quick description of how excited they are after passing their checkride. So I'm not going to ask him to do that video again because you can see the excitement in his face. So congratulations again, Steven. I have two more videos that just came in that I'll share with you within the next week. I am Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter Lane Ground School. You can go below. Our private pilot membership is only $49 a month. With the money you're going to spend on your private pilot rating, 49 bucks is nothing. You pay your instructor somewhere in the area of 50 an hour to sit there and teach you things. And you're always going to have to do a certain amount of training with your instructor because he or she has to make sure you have the knowledge that you need in order to sign you off. But you can use our ground school to supplement your own study, to supplement the training you do with your Instructor, it's only $49 a month and you can cancel anytime. You, you can come back anytime. So it's a great deal. Seven years online, we've, we've helped hundreds and hundreds of people and that's how the success stories keep coming in. And the videos, absolutely awesome. We appreciate every single one of them. So it is a holiday. I'm going to wrap this up because everybody's got things to do today. Thank you everyone for chiming in on these videos. Day one. Did I say 107? Yeah, I think it's day 107. I'll have to check, but pretty sure it's 107. Nope, double checked. Day 106, 105 was helicopter kneeboard. So anyway, keep the comments coming. Have a beautiful holiday today. Enjoy your Sunday. I'm over here sitting in the corner, just trying to get to where I could see with the sunlight coming in. And it's like, you know what, just click camp, just click record and go. Because I don't have time to sit here all day trying to make the lighting just perfect. So, so like. And subscribe to the channel. For all of you that are struggling, just keep after it. And I was just thinking this morning, I was thinking back about my private. I was thinking back about my failure of my first checkride. I remember that's why I'm here and that's why we created helicopter airline ground school because of the struggle. And I think about all the emotion that comes through from people and I get it. I understand what, why the emotions come through. I understand the frustrations. Just remember, people just keep after it. Keep pushing, keep studying, don't give up. And you will get there. And it's so sweet in the end when you pass that checkride and you get that certificate, regardless whether you get through the first time or in the event you might have a failure. I did. It happened to me. Best thing ever happened to me was that first failure on a private pilot checkride. Keep after it, people. Keep the dream alive. Keep doing it, keep studying, keep flying and you will get there. And when you get that little hot little certificate in your hand, it'll be worth every single ounce of headache and heartache. Trust me. All right, like, subscribe, put your comments down below and we will see you tomorrow. Day 107.
