#154 Instrument Instruction Guimbal Cabri G2 with Chris Houser

It was a good time.

So cool. I think that Sweetwater's gonna have to give you a raise after today. Yeah, throw that in there before I lose thought. That's great. That's the stuff that I know I wanted to hear because I wonder about the whole switching back and forth pedals thing since I don't know. But what I want to touch on is people are asking us all the time, where's a good flight school? Where can I get instrument training? You know, who's got examiners available? So since you're here and I know double eyes are hard to find. Number one, double eyes are hard to find. And then finding a double eye somewhere where you can go find him and fly with him that's not on a 7 and 7 EMS schedule or some other weird schedule and flying and having an aircraft that's a trainer and then having an examiner available so someone could come to you in Fort Wayne and get instrument training. Instrument and double eye training in the cavalry?

Yes. Yeah, Kenny's exactly right. When I was going through my instrument training, it was difficult to find a helicopter double eye. And when I found one, of course he had a full time job, I had my full time job. The aircraft had to be available. Plus we were battling weather and you know, Indiana weather. So it was hard to find, you know, the time to get all that, all the sync up just right. And actually I took my written test for the instrument and when I finally finished, I actually had to go out to St. Louis and fly a 44. And I was out there for a week to finish up because my written test was going to expire that month if I didn't get it done. So it took me a whole 24 months. From the time I took my test until I actually got the instrument rating was just 24 months. It was a very long process of trying to get the training done. But Kenny's right, there is. There's not a lot of CFI's for helicopters. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do it, because you can't find one. And I went to Indianapolis and flew a tannin to get mine. And so as far as I know me, I mean, I'm sure there's others, but guys that, that are actually practicing it, it's hard to find. So Tannen's the only one I know down in Indianapolis. I'm not sure if you know of Chicago based area over there, if they have anybody. I. I don't know. But yeah, so that's. Yeah, one of the Reasons why I got it was just, you know, I mean, and honestly, it looks good on the. On the resume, you know, and. And we do have Sweet Aviation. The gimbal does provide us to do that training. And we do occasionally have guys that call up and say, hey, I want to get my instrument add on, or hey, I want to get my instrument helicopter. And. And yes, we're able to provide that service.

Well, I think that's awesome. I wanted to plug that because of it being a problem. And you ask about not only flight schools, but, you know, reputable. So I'm personally going to vouch for Chris Hauser. We did all of his ratings together and now, you know, say, hey, can you come down and fly this weekend with a guy in the instrument? And he goes around this thing and he finds one thing that doesn't look even a little bit out of place. Trust me, he bounces me about it. So if you're looking for quality instruction, wanting to fly the Cadbury and looking for instrument instruction in the Midwest, there you go. Contact Chris Hauser at Sweet Aviation because again, this is a service that is hard to find and I'll personally vouch for him as you're going to get some awesome instruction. So with all that being said before we go, because this has turned into pretty long coffee with Kenny, which is awesome. It's awesome that you're here after everything that we've been through in the last 10 years. So we've been talking about struggles a lot in the past couple weeks during coffee with Kenny. We've been talking about people flying and getting their career started in their 40s and their 50s and their 60s and even 70s. So along that line, you've had one career, you're now moving to another career. So just talk a little bit about someone who is going through the struggles as we all have. Everybody has a struggle. You had yours too. Anything you'd like to share with somebody watching that, whether they're just starting out or they've been working on their private for four years, they've been going for the CFI for six years and they're struggling to get there and they still want that dream or they thinking about leaving their job to fly full time, but they're. No, they're not quite ready yet. They got those work life balances. Any advice you'd want to share with someone with your struggles and anything you just would like to like to talk.

About, just do it. Does that work? Yeah, it could be very simple.

It doesn't have to be long and Drawn out. It can be very simple.

I think my, my situation was maybe a little bit unique because.

You know.

I've been flying what, 10, 11 years now, helicopters for, for 10 years. And the goal was always to fly full time. That was my goal. However, I was at the police department. I was working, trying to stay there and work toward, you know, a 20 year pension and all that. So I was kind of having drawback. Plus I have, I have kids and they're in this area and I don't really want to leave the area yet until my youngest is up and gone out on her own. So I think, you know, I've got a couple things here right now, just my kids. But I think for a person who is just starting out and really wants to do it, I think the opportunities are out there. You just got to, you have to be willing to, I guess maybe if you want to, say, get out of your comfort zone or maybe, I mean, a guy who's single, early 20s, and wants that dream job, then you're going to have to be willing to go chase it. I mean, I see jobs all the time, you know, 300 hours. We need a flight instructor. All you need is 300 hours. But, you know, it's in Florida or it's in Myrtle beach or it's in Las Vegas or it's in California. And for me, that just didn't work because my kids were here. But for a young guy just starting off, you know, heck yeah, go after that, you know. You know, for me, now that I start, as you mentioned, as a second career, you know, I think I kind of got lucky a little bit because I was able to. I'm building my time slowly, but now it's, you know, now full time, you know, So I think the opportunity is here is right now for me. The other thing is go out and fly what you can. I mean, you used to have a name for me. I don't think I want to say it on air.

You say it, go ahead.

What I call you, you used to call me a helicopter whore. Because if I wanted, I'm all about experience. I can proudly say that I've probably got, you know, 18, 19, 20 different makes of models that I've got my hands on and gotten at least a handful of hours in anywhere between the Robinsons to MD 500 to 109 to the 130s to the 120s. Hiller piston, Hiller turbine, Hiller FH1100, Brantley. I can't even, you know, I can't even think of this bell 206s. You know, I could, whatever else is out there, but I would. I mean, I remember I found an MD 500 that was a five hour drive one day. And I was like, you know what, I called him up and I said, hey, if I make it up there, can, can I get a couple hours in it? He's like, yeah, sure. So I drove five hours one, got up early, got up there and flew and got three or four hours in it and then drove home. I mean, five hours, 10 hours on the road to get four hours of helicopter time. But it was important to me. It was something that I wanted to do. So, you know, don't limit yourself to just one aircraft or just one training. Go out there and get some other hours and some other machines and to build time. If you know somebody or if you, you know, I try to say just, you know, like, I would get lucky and I would be able to fly for the pd. So I build a little bit of turbine time in there. But, you know, don't be afraid if there's a guy at your local airport that's got a helicopter, don't be afraid to say, hey, can I go up with you sometime and I'll buy fuel, I'll buy you lunch, I'll buy whatever, you know, just to get the experience in there.