#174 "why I'm a pain in the ... when I'm preparing you for a check ride"

Wow, what an amazing week. Only way to do it is just do it, people. Welcome to day 174 Coffee with Kenny. I got it right. I got to say thank you to Mark McDaniel for coming up. He's our brand new private pilot. Private pilot. Add on. You've seen Mark in a couple of the past videos. And I got to say thanks for coming up, Mark. You did an incredible job. And he commented Yesterday on the YouTube video, wow, I think Kenny's glad to get rid of me. That's not it, Mark. Glad to get you done. You know, we drug it out over a few months because he only flew once or twice a week. And that's just the way you make progress, right? And we flew a total of maybe 13, 14 times. He hadn't flown in about 10 years, so he had helicopter time. Just wasn't proficient because he hadn't flown in a long time. And Mark was awesome to work with and kind of hate to see you go, but you also went home with your private pilot. So what I want to say today is I'm a pain in the ass in the helicopter, and I'm a pain in the ass when it's getting ready, when we're getting ready to go. And why is that? Because making me happy is a lot harder than making the examiner happy. And somewhere along the way, I realized that. And I don't remember when through my career that it all sudden I kind of, you know, dawned on me. I really want you flying like a commercial pilot when you go to take the private pilot, right? So when we're out there and we're going around the pattern and we're doing these maneuvers, I'm trying to get perfection, and, you know, there's a point where I gotta go, you know what, it's just a private pilot checkride. It's not a commercial checkride. But I want you to do really, really well. And Mark did. The examiner said, excellent oral and excellent flight. He's like, I don't even really have a debrief. He said, technically, if you'd have been going for a commercial check ride today, you probably just about could have passed that. Which that wasn't what they were doing. They were going for private, right? That's the way we want it. That's the outcome that we want. And that's why I'm a pain in the ass in the helicopter, and I'm a pain in the butt when it comes to studying. You know, I want you to know this stuff, and I want you to know it through and through. That's how people do well with the checkride. Okay? Now, of course, you can have some extreme examples where maybe you got an examiner that's just being, you know, a pain, but I don't think that's generally the case. I think examiners want you to be prepared. They want you to do well, and they want you to go home with the rating. If you show up half, you know, asked, and you're studying, this wasn't what it should have been. And you. You got most of the knowledge, but you. There's some areas you're thin on or you're good with most of the maneuvers, but there's a couple you're struggling with. You know, it's about showing up prepared, and that's what it takes. And I have been doing this 20 years, and I got a pretty darn good success rate. And it's because I'm a pain in the butt, right? Because I want you to do well, and I want to walk away that day going, heck, yeah. And I was excited in the video that we showed yesterday, I was excited to get Mark done, and, you know, it's just fun. And Mark was excited, like, hey, man, I got my private checkride, and I get to go for a ride in an R66 on the same day. So, you know, how cool was that? We loved having Mark here. Mark was the first one to really experience the whole hogs hanger experience, and here with us in our new home. So that was freaking awesome. And I want to share with you a video I did when Mark was inside doing the oral. I went outside and just made sure everything good was good with the helicopter ride. I wiped some bugs off the windshield, and the interior was already fine. But I did a video because I want to show you what the cockpit should look like all the time. Regardless, not just going for a checkride. I'm just gonna go ahead and roll that video, and then I'll be right back. Hey, I want to show you what I think the interior ought to look like anytime, particularly when you for a check ride, too, because we're doing check ride today. Mark's inside doing his oral right now. Whatever you do with your seat belts, you know, it's up to you on how you want them to look. But always put them back nice and neat. Nothing laying around. Normally we have the PoH in here, but he has it inside for the checkride. Nothing in here but a timer, a checklist, and a strap for the checklist. Interior clean, everything just nice and neat. I See his hat up there? But he'll put that on, though, when he gets ready to fly. You just never know. And I can remember preaching one time way back to someone I give an intro to, and I'm telling them how, you know, when you get done flying, you want to put everything back nice and neat and just make the cockpit look good. So if a potential customer walks up, the FAA walks up the interior, you want it to be looking good, like you got your act together, right? And a half an hour later, I had a GoPro on the rotor blade, and I was spinning it around. This is quite a few years ago. And all sudden, this guy comes walking up, got a tag dress, real nice, riding. He's like, hey, I'm so and so with the faa. What's that camera on your rotor blade for? Oh, I'm like, I'm just out here, you know, playing, just filming, spinning the rotor blade around. And he's like, so let's take a look at your documents. And goes right over to the aircraft and, you know, asked me how much fuel I had on board. And I knew how much fuel I had on because we used the fuel stick. I've showed this in many videos before, but I'll show you again. Beauty of an instrument. You got this fuel stick. So every time you go to fly, you can come over here and you can dip the tank, and you know exactly how much fuel you have, what you need to order, put it away. Then when you're done flying, you get out, dip it, pull it back out. I just do that religiously, right? And that particular day, and I even showed this person, I was intro, and I'm like, yeah, and then you can check when you get done, make sure you got enough fuel, you know, in there in case the FAA walks up. So, yeah, half an hour later, they did. And so he's asking me all the questions. I had all my documents and stuff. And he was being, you know, a little bit. I don't know. I don't know what word to use. But anyway, he's like, well, how much fuel you got on? And I go, I knew exactly how many gallons I had in the tank, right? So, you know, by the time he gets done with the ramp, check the other one thing, he was like, well, how about your aircraft log books? I'm like, well, they're with the mechanic. Well, you don't have them here? I'm like, nope, they're with mechanic. He just did maintenance on it. And I left him at the maintenance shop. He's like, oh, okay. So anyone. He gets all done, everything's fine and dandy, and then he kind of even lightens up after we're done with the inspection, right? He's like, okay, well, we're done. You passed. I'm nude. And. And he stands around, shoots the breeze for another half an hour. But point is, you know, whether you're a private owner or you're working at a flight school, you're a student, you're a cfi, always put the interior back together when you walk away. Do something kind of nice and neat with your seatbelts. Pick up anything that you took with you that doesn't need to be in there. Just clean the clean, you know, clean it up, lease up the area. That way you're proud if anybody comes up just to look and check things out, or if you get a FAA surprise ramp check. You just never know who's going to come walking up and approach you on a ramp. So that right there is a great tip and a great story. I just thought it was kind of fun to shoot that while Mark was in doing the oral and kind of funny because I. I wasn't really pacing, right. I felt good about it. And when I was a younger instructor, there, sure, there was plenty of times I was pacing the floor up and down to get through the oral and then pacing the floor, you know, while they're out flying. And this week, I wasn't really nervous because I knew Mark was prepared and I knew his knowledge was good. He was really, really sharp right from the start, and I didn't have to do a lot of ground with him because he's actually been watching videos of mine for 10 years, clear back from my Fort Wayne Helicopters days that I've always tried to, you know, hide away from. But it's part of my past, right? And so Mark is an original member from way back, watching the videos, before he even started online ground school. But he is a ground school member, and he kept going through the videos, and he came the day ahead of time. We did that one last flight, last flight that I didn't really want to do the day before, but he felt like it helped him in the end. He goes, well, I know you didn't really want to do that, but it still helped me so great it worked. So I don't generally like to fly the day before, but for Mark, it works. We hadn't flown for a couple weeks, and he was very appreciative of that, of that. So he wanted to let me know that right before he left he said, well, I know you didn't want to do it, but I think that last flight helped. So it was awesome. We had these guys stop on the R66, go back and check that video from yesterday, today 173. Their information is there. If you're interested in some flight training or tours down in the Texas area, their information's in that video yesterday web addresses and where you can find these guys. Matter of fact, I'll just go ahead and put it below this video too, as well, in case you did see the video or didn't for some flight training and air tours in Texas. So, you know, it really is about. I'm going to use the term totality of the circumstance, right? Sounds like a big word. I only repeat that because that was used a lot at the Indiana Police Academy that I was very proud to go through as a young man. And I learned a lot about lot of things. And, you know, going through the police academy set me up for, you know, the rest of my life, right. Taught me many things. And totality, the circumstance come up a lot. And that's kind of like the checkride, right? It's totality of the circumstance. Showing up prepared, man, that's the way you do it. And I failed my first checkride because, yeah, I was somewhat prepared, but I wasn't prepared like I should have been. That is why I failed. I was nervous because I. I knew the information and I could fly the helicopter, but I wasn't confident. And you know, that a lot of that was probably just my own problem. It wasn't going back on the instructors or the aircraft or anything else. It was really my problem, you know, lack of self confidence. And I did change everything by going back. I didn't. I didn't go for six months. For six months, I took a break from flying. And I was riding around the police car one day and I was actually training an officer and he was like, hey, when are you gonna go do finish that helicopter thing? And I'm like, you know what? Damn it, I need to go back. And I need to go back and do that. And I did go down and I bought a notebook at the drugstore and not far from where I'm living right now. It's kind of funny. I'm back to this area 20 years later. And I got the notebook and just started writing down notes. I had notes scattered everywhere from flying with three different places, different instructors. You know, I had all the books, but I just. I was overwhelmed by it. And I just sat down with my notebook and started writing down every single thing that I struggled with, and especially the things that the examiner pointed out after I failed. Like he said, selling the power, you got to know it and you got to know it like this. And he asked me a question about, I think maybe, you know, engine quitting in a hover. And I had to think too long about which way the nose was going to go, which is why we. I love the thing ET we came up with for counterclockwise rotor systems. We talk about that inside helicopter land ground school. You know, as well mention that quite a bit. So point is, I failed the first time due to lack of preparedness. You know, I was prepared, but not prepared enough. And that's probably why I didn't sleep the night before. And that's why I went to the checkride so fricking nervous. It was unbelievable. And this guy was with the faa. He was an FAA examiner and we knew his reputation, right? And the reason I chose to do it with FAA versus FAA designated examiner was I was like many of you, I was struggling for every penny to get through the training. And this was my private. Right. I knew I had an instrument and I knew I had commercial and all the other things CFI I wanted to do. And so I was trying to save money and I decided to take it with the faa. And we knew like one out of two people don't pass with this guy first time around, right? So I knew I was going up a tough against a very tough examiner. And all these years later, I. I'd love to know if he's even still working anyway. Him failing me was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't be sitting here right now doing this video for you. I wouldn't have been there tomorrow, yesterday with or this week with Mark. And all this would not be possible without my failure. So failure can be a good thing, right? And because of my failure is how I created what I've done, is how I created the way I teach. And it's how helicopter online ground school got created. It was created through failure. It was created through my failures. And I've been telling these stories for seven years now. All my headaches and heartaches along the way, right? You've all got them. Everybody does. Right? We're all human beings. We all have life struggles. And it don't matter. It doesn't. It could be in your personal life, it could be financial, it could be the helicopter, it could be the study and it could be the flying. You got struggles across the board, it's about every day getting up and just going back after it. So, you know, I even asked an examiner recently, and I'd never really put this. Post this question. And I said, you know, how does the. You can't pass everyone, right? You know, what does the FAA say about that? And he kind of gave me kind of a vague answer. I'm sure they don't want to reveal what's said behind the scenes. And I have mentioned this before, and people like, well, that's just not right. I think there has to be a fear of failure, right? If an examiner passes every single person that comes through, then is he doing his job? Because not every student's going to show up every time any one person could have a bad day. Maybe you were really prepared that day because something at home is bothering you. You have a problem with the checkride. So that's why we have what they call the practical test standards that will soon be the ACS airman certification standards. Examiners have to hold you to a standard. And that's like, you know, I'll relay this to Mark. Can hear this now. When I talk to examiner before the checkride, when Mark wasn't around, I'm like, hey, you know, we've been flying for a while and we just. I want to get him done. And I said, you know, on the phone to the examiner, I go, I'm bringing you a private pilot. I'm not bringing a commercial pilot. Right? And I even said it to him on the phone, I go, I really like to try to have the most commercial standards just because I want you to excel. And why'd I even tell you that? I don't know. It just so the examiner knew he would be prepared, right? I've known this guy for forever. So, Mark, you did a freaking phenomenal job to have an examiner say, excellent oral, great flight. No real debrief, technically, almost commercial standards at a private pilot level. And yesterday on the ramp when we were out there and we were doing the video and I drugged Mark in front of the camera, he didn't even know I was going to bring him in front of the camera. He had no idea. And when he threw a plug in there for helicopter align ground school, my videos, that was. That was from the heart or that was from the gut. And Mark was telling you the truth. You know, that's helicopter land ground school now well over seven years old, and it's all put together there for you to help you get through the training. And of course, Mark studied on his own. And you know, here's a little tip. I have a second copy. Not a second copy, but I have my own copy for the Enstrom F28F. I've got a manuals for like R22 and R44. So I have an extra manual so that you don't have to take the manual out of the aircraft. And I don't loan stuff out a lot, but I do let people take this usually. And I let Mark take the manual home with him. Again, this is like the shop copy, right? So that he could go home and actually leap through the PoH. And I recommend a lot of you do that. I did that for my ratings. I remember my. One of my first instructors when I was working in the R22 and it was Brad, one of my first instructors was, was an awesome, was an awesome dude. And he's like, dude, you should just buy your own manual. And I spent 50 bucks or whatever at the time. It is pretty nice to spend that little bit of extra money to buy the manual for the aircraft you're going to be flying. That way you've got it at home, you can study with it. Inside Helicopter land ground school, we have R22, R44 and instrument specific sections in there that helps you learn the information about the specific aircraft that you may be flying. And we may expand on that here in the future. Taz has been talking about doing some Schweitzer stuff for a long time and I talked to Chris Hauser about doing some Cadbury stuff. But, you know, all in good time. So thanks for tuning in for day 174. So, you know, and just doing a fresh checkride, it does bring back all the tips that Taz and I have in this book that I've been pushing to you for a while. You know, it's really about that. This is just as valid now as it was a year ago when we put it out. It's been almost a year since we launched that book. And showing up for a checkride really is about being prepared. And this top 10 checkride book hits the things that are most common that people screw up. Right. I mentioned this the other day. We're not putting flukes in here that almost never happen. Top 10 checkride tips. There's more in there, by the way. There's bonuses. It's the things that we see on a continual basis. Right? Because people are human beings and people screw up and we have to learn and we have to relearn and we have to relearn. And no matter how many times I harp to somebody coming down to checkride time, there's always that last, well, do you have everything you need? Well, yeah. Well. And I started asking the questions, oh, I don't have one of those. I'm like, well, it's in the pts. Well, you sure I gotta have that? If it's in the pts, show up with it. Okay, if the PTS says you have to have it or what the ace when the ACS comes out, just have whatever's listed in there. Just get it ahead of time. Is a checkride worth blowing last minute? Because at 9pm the night before, you didn't have a publication or you didn't have some piece that you needed for any given checkride and you're scrounging around that night before anyway, that's like talking about checkrides. Please give us a thumbs up. Put your comments down below. Congratulations again, Mark. Thanks to the guys in the R66 that stopped by. I'll put their links down below again for when you're looking for some training and tours in Texas. That's awesome. And I did get to fly in the video. I said I'm not going to have time to fly. And they're like, come on, let's just go for like 10, 15 minutes real quick and we'll do an approach and an auto. Whatever you want to do. So I did get to go on the R66. That was amazing. I'd never been in one. I've seen him, you know. But that was really cool and I was really impressed. And that auto rotation, man, I brag about the instrumental rotations all the time. But that Our auto rotation R66, I gotta say that was pretty sweet. And somebody yesterday commented you weren't auto rotation, you were under power. If you look at the video, you might have, you know when you don't see them split right off the bat, but in the turn you, if you look the needle split. Okay, so that was not a rotation. When your needles are not joined and you're descending, that's not a rotation. So just a little jab back at the guy the other day said, well, it's not a rotation. Yes it was. It was not a rotation. All right. And in the next couple days we're going to do a couple more of those videos I mentioned just a couple days ago. I just wanted to get the checkride thing in today. Thank you, Rock Shop. That's the story about. I'll tell about that one again. Maybe not again, but someday. Why we call this helicopter Rock Shop. It's actually in the. Anyway, that's another story. What a sweet machine. Proved again. A brand new helicopters and digital stuff. That's all cool, man. We all like the cool fancy gadgetry. But you know what? Not necessary. And she just performed again so well, almost knock on wood. Look like actual wood desk here. I can knock on wood. What a wonderful machine, man. I just can't get over it. All right, wrapping it up. See you tomorrow on day 175. Thank you everyone for the last seven years, seven and a half years, 10 years. Been amazing and you're all amazing. And the comments, comments made for Heather when we hurt her foot because I'm an idiot. Heather is a very huge part of what we do here every single day. And Heather's talking to all the members. You know, she sends everybody an email. Welcome email checks in on you, make sure you're good. That's for helicopter land ground school and for ordering the books. I'll put helicopterground.com down below. We have private commercial CFI instrument 24 hour test flight you can take on the monthly membership. You don't get billed for 24 hours. You keep the training or you remove your credit card if it's not what you're looking for at this time. So many people leave and come back and I was telling Heather yesterday, we've had a couple people that, you know, got the training refunded and then emailed me, Kenny, I refunded your ground school and then I went and filled my check right on the oral. Can I come back so it's proven, it happens. It helps you regardless of whether you're getting good instruction or not. Maybe, or ground, maybe they're not doing any ground with you at all. We can help fill that void or so many of our members are happy with their flight school, they're happy with their instructor and they're happy with the ground they're receiving. And they still use helicopter only and ground school because you can log in 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any single device anywhere at home. You just have to be online. You do need Internet access. That's why it's called helicopter only in ground school. So there's a link below for that. It's time tested, proven miss members all over the world. It's good stuff. So go down below for the test drive@helopterground.com and also the link for top 10 checkride tips. Check it out, we'll ship it to you. Shipping, handling. Heather will send you a nice sweet email and welcome you. And make sure she gets your book shipped off to you. So, see you in day 175. Peace out.