#181 “these things try to kill you” Day 181 Coffee With Kenny

For the red record light. There it is. Day one, coffee with Kenny. Gonna have a little bit of kind of an emotional video today. This is my good friend Rolanda of 20, we think somewhere around 25 years. And I'm gonna answer a question today from a member and this is a neat question and there's some backstory and I'm gonna answer his question and put in some personal stuff. Rolanda helped me years ago with the helicopter company that I had. She was there helping me with books, or not books, day to day business, taxes, warding off creditors. We were already personal friends, but she came in to help me and work part time. And so she lived through the stuff that I talk about my failures of the past. And I want her to be involved in a video because she's part of the story you haven't heard about. You all know Heather and you know Brian and Taz and Chris and everybody else. Here's a part of the helicopter story that you haven't heard with the exception of, you know, I've played that old video. My first video ever was in my broken down old trailer. And that's what inspired this conversation we're going to have right now was we just had a nice lunch and Rolanda said, yeah, remember that crappy old trailer you lived in? And I laughed. Right. Because this is part of the story and I'm going to relate it to the questions today. So day 181, coffee with Kenny. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and click the bell, please, and you'll be notified of these daily videos. So this question is. Wasn't sure where to submit this to? Dropping it here. One of the very first things my CFI told me is these things try to kill you. It made me chuckle at the time, but now I understand that he was literally deadly serious. In the same way when you buy a car, you notice everybody has the same car. I'm now noticing just how dangerous flying helicopters is. The very first aviation crash I ever witnessed was a helicopter losing tail rotor on short final on a weekly basis on Instagram. I'm treated to helicopter crashes, some of which are fatal. I'm not even deferred by any of this and I didn't even think about it until you told your story about how you were sitting on the ground and a helicopter destroyed itself and messed you up in the process. Now I have questions and before I go on, I believe in one of the stories I told when I'm in the ambulance after the helicopter destroyed itself and I'm on The way to the hospital. I'm in a neck brace, on a stretcher, lights a siren, and my phone rings in my pockets. And it was a summertime accident. She was in Wisconsin. My phone's ringing. I reach down. I'm laying there, you know, contemplating my life, thinking, what am I going to do now? My helicopter career's over. And I'm thinking, well, I could go back to building houses because I worked for a construction guy for many years and I knew he was building a new home and I thought, he probably needs help. So my helicopter career is going to be over, so I can go back to building houses. Okay, this relates to the question that day. My phone's ringing. I open it up or I look at it and guess who's calling me. She's sitting right here. I'm in Indiana in a helicopter accident. I'm on the way to the hospital, and Rolanda was in Wisconsin, and she's ringing my cell phone to see if it's me, because in Wisconsin, she heard about a helicopter crash in Indiana on the news. So that fast, I'm in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and guess who's calling me right here. Okay. Helicopter crash near Goshen. Yes. Yeah. And that's what you heard and immediately dialed my number? Yep. Okay, so story gets even better. And again, this is fun because behind the scenes, a lot of the stories we tell rule. I was a part of a lot of it. And nobody's ever even knew who she was until last night. She was on the boat with me and Ed. So I'm kind of curious about what the risk profile is for helicopter pilots. Do we have a higher than normal mortality rate? Are your life insurance premiums outrageous from a less drastic perspective? If we're on the job and how do we make a living until we're cleared to fly again? Do we need to have some fallback skills so that we can keep putting food on the table? These are phenomenal questions that I've lived every bit of it. So do we have a higher than mortality rate? Depends on what career you're doing and what the circumstances are. I don't feel what I do right now. I would say no. When I was flying helicopter ems, Absolutely. Because it's the most dangerous job in the country. That's not even on the scale of top 10 most dangerous jobs. And if you don't believe me, Google it. EMS helicopter pilots is the most dangerous job in the country. And so, yeah, mortality rate, not good if you're an EMS helicopter pilot in Compared to other helicopter jobs, I fly great equipment now maintained by people I know and I'm not forced to fly. I don't have to make those decisions to go fly in shitty weather. Okay, so it depends on the circumstances. I think if you're flying in a good for a good company and you're flying good equipment and you're pre flight and you're knowledgeable and you know your stuff, I think you'll be just fine. If you're flying iffy equipment, you're flying in danger environments, you're flying ag spraying or other dangerous situations. It very well could be. Are life insurance premiums outrageous? They can be. And you will be turned down for certain insurances because you're a pilot. So yes, it could be more money and there are insurance companies that will not take you because you're a helicopter pilot. Simply the case. Why? I've learned in 20 years from a less drastic perspective, if we're injured on the job, how do we make a living until we're cleared to fly again? I did it with ebay and again Rolanda was helping me back in the day. She hung out with me at the beat up old trailer I lived in that she mentioned that my first video of all time was called I own a helicopter and I live in a trailer. I was making 50 grand a year working for a helicopter EMS company. I owned a helicopter and I lived in a beat up old piece of shit trailer because I couldn't afford a nice place to live. And I had a shop right beside this old trailer. It was a 40 by 70 pole building that I owned for 20 years and when things got ugly I had to sell them. So now Rolando came to see the hangar for the first time today. And we've been talking about how you can lose it all and you can get it all back. Seven years ago when I sold my property, it hurt. Rolando was there helping me when I was moving out of that and giving things away because I sold it on a short term deal. I had to get the hell out. And I didn't. I couldn't afford to even go store everything. I didn't have time to try sell stuff. I'm giving away TVs. Her dad came down. I gave her dad a bunch of stuff because I had to get out. So Rolanda was there with the shop. We worked out of the shop, ended up losing it because of the helicopter business. Right. What do I have now? I have the Hog's Hangar, bigger and better than what I had. But I had to Lose it. And I remember when I was going through all this and people say sometimes you gotta lose it all. And I did. And I had to. And it's part of the story now, as hurtful as it is. I did lose everything. But this is a fun day. This is motivational of how we've been through the. Ringer, Ringer, Ringer, Ringer. Her last name's Ringer. Maiden name. Anyway. And I'm going to tell the story about Rona sometime in the near future. And there's this girl two years ago. Talk about overcoming obstacles. Not many of you out here will have faced what she went through two years ago when her family was called in because they didn't think she was going to survive an illness. That's a whole other story that we're going to talk about more in another feature. But these are the type of people I surround myself with. Right? Good people draw good people. Exactly. Good people draw good people. Okay, so try to get back to the questions because then I'm off on another half an hour tangent. If we talk about that, we're going to talk about another day. So I think I was on until. What you get to do. Oh, I sold stuff on ebay when I couldn't fly. While I was waiting to get my injuries healed up, what did I do? I started selling off childhood toys. My sister had found a bunch of stuff at my childhood home that was put away. And as a kid, I always put stuff back in the box. Right. I'm that type of person. I want to put the toy back in the box, the pieces back where they're supposed to be and put it back. So I had these childhood toys that were in nice condition. Six Million Dollar man, you know, an Evel Knievel. The list goes on and on. All these toys. So I started selling off childhood toys and other things I had sitting around my shop that I had to sell. That's how I earned my living while I was waiting to be reinstated with my helicopter job. So having other things to do. Yes. As a background. She just asked me on the way here, what would you do today if you couldn't play anymore? I said, number one, I'm young enough. I could still do construction. I could do that. I could go back to being a police officer. I've got a couple other websites that don't give my. I don't give a lot of attention to because helicopter is so much. It's my passion. If I couldn't fly anymore, I have two other things I could work on if I couldn't fly, but I'd stick with this because it's my passion. Do we need to have some fallback skills so we can keep putting food on the table? Yes. And along the line of losing everything, I've got the shop back. It's the better, it's bigger, it's better, it's badder, it's nicer. Right. This is now my shop. It's a hangar but it's my shop. And the other day I mentioned a piece I had to sell and Ruana knows this really well because we used to use to ride around with me all the time. Many years ago I had a really cool black on black car that I owned for 10 years and I put 140,000 miles on it and I loved it. Drove it to all my helicopter training as I was going broke the first time I was going broken anyway, I had to sell it a little over seven years ago, eight, nine years ago when times were tough and I'm trying to make helicopter payments and pay maintenance, I had to sell something that I didn't want to sell. And in the theme of these daily videos are motivational. So we're going to talk about Rowan's illness sometime very soon. The obstacles you can overcome, you can do anything and you can overcome anything. So was hesitant to share this and I'm going to share with you now what I did last week when I said my daughter and I are getting ready to go look at something. I am going to show it after I show this quick little video right about now, right after I shot that super motivational video and I was on a natural high and I even said that in the video I'm going to show you right now. Why? Alright, quick little video. Brian, come over here and just shake my hand real quick and then I'll let you know, I'll let you skate away. Brian just hooked me up and I want to say he's at Lakeside Chevrolet in Warsaw, Indiana and he took really good care of me. Yesterday I stopped by here. I wanted to make a dream come true. Many of you that have watched the videos, you know that I've been through the ringer like a lot of people and I had a black, a black on black Corvette that I owned for 10 years that I drove every single day and I put 140,000 miles on had to sell it when times got tough to make helicopter payments. And someone who I watched through the gurus and the mentors, people I watched that said you can lose everything and you can get it all Back. Brian just helped me get back what I lost in the past. Sacrificed for my business. I lost it. And seven years later, I wanted, I wanted to, I don't know, get the car back, but I got it newer and better. So you can lose it all and you can get it all back, just like the gurus say. So thanks again, Brian. I appreciate it very much. He did an awesome job at making this along with Mike in the credit department. Piece of cake. It was a snap. So thanks again. Now Gloria and I are gonna go enjoy. All right, so there you go. Rolanda got to stay in the picture. Don't run away. We're gonna make her maybe a road trip in it. Maybe, hopefully tomorrow she's gonna go to a birthday party about an hour away and I go, hell, I'll take you, let's take the Corvette and go cruise. So she got her first ride, what, yesterday? I took your ride last night. So the other day after the video or. Well, I just showed you the video and I had to go through 24 hours of guilt and like, I don't deserve this, I shouldn't do it, I shouldn't spend the money. And I even consulted with Taz Christman and said, Taz, is the world going to look at this in the wrong way? And he's like, dude, you earned it. And it don't matter what anybody thinks, you earned this. Who cares whether you show it or not? So you've been following the story. I build you all up, I motivate you and try to help you with the helicopter training, going for your dreams, overcoming your obstacles. So here it is. I got it back. It's not same car, but it's better. It's kind of like the hogs hanger in the shop. So it just inspired in the last 24 hours of Rolanda hanging out at my house and telling stories and Talking about our 25 year friendship and all the freaking struggles and everything we've been through and overcome and her being there back in the day when I was going broke and losing everything. And right before I turned the camera on, she even said, you know, oh yeah, we're running from the credit or you're running from the creditors and we're trying to put people off because you're trying to, you know, just trying your best to do your best and make payments and there's only so much to go around, you know, you're doing your best. You can't pay everybody when you're going, when you're going down the tubes. So we'll maybe show you some more in the future. I thought about, I want to do some great big cool video and show me smoking tires or doing something silly like that. But tires are too. Tires are too expensive. So there you go. You live your dreams. You have your obstacles. You ride the wave up and down. Right now, I'm riding the wave, but I'm prepared for when things get a little ugly as life does for all of us. I don't know what else to say. You want to add anything or we call that good. I think we're going to call it good. All right, so there you go. Like, subscribe the channel. There it is, people. Go for your dreams. Go for it. If you want to be a helicopter pilot, you can do it. You can be safely and everything can be fine and dandy. You got to pick your career that's right for you, the profession that you're right for you. But, yes, have a backup plan. As a businessman, this is an investment, believe it or not. It's nobody's business what I paid for it. But as a businessman, I bought this car really, really, right? Unbelievably low price. And it's for me, but it's also a business. It's a business choice because this car is not going to lose its value. I could drive 30,000 miles on it and sell the car for more than I paid for it because I'm a smart businessman now, because I was a stupid businessman for 20 years of my life. So there you go. Comment down below. Like, subscribe to our channel and we will see you in day 182. Like, subscribe. Comment below. Peace out.