#20 HOGS Member Experiences Prejudice And Lack Of Self Confidence As Female Pilot

Okay, Just finishing up the coffee for the day and got a good one here from a female HOGS member. And I wanted to do this. I sat and thought about it while I was drinking the coffee, how I wanted to respond. I'm going to be motivational because I'm a dreamer, and if I wasn't a dreamer, I wouldn't be here making these videos and doing what I do today. So she sends me this email just got this morning, and I was glad that she sent it because this is a good question, and I've talked about this a little bit in the past, but not really a whole lot. And female pilots, they can do it just as good as what a man can do it. Okay. If a woman has naturally a gentle touch. And they can be very smart, too. Some of the females I've flown with and done training with are some of the best ground school instructors I've ever seen. So she says she's got about 200 hours in helicopters and she's got some hurdles, but she's got some things going for her, too. Even though she only has 200 hours, she has time in a turbine aircraft, okay? Very, very valuable for her. So she said, you know, this is the helicopter that she used in her school, and I'm going to keep, you know, be careful to protect. Protect her identity. I don't want to give away who she is and then cause her more problems than what she's already. Already having. Right? So she tells me she just goes off the street to commercial, which is cool. Struggling a lot. Struggled a lot in the beginning. Not with the theory. I was the best in my class at that. Again, you know, if, for example, we have Holly Gardell that came from Colorado to do her CFI with us, she did extremely well. Showed up so prepared and did a wonderful job in the aircraft. And she now performs in some of our videos inside helicopter land ground school. So no doubt, I'm sure she was. But everything you've described in the last four or five videos, she struggled with, right? Because we've been hitting videos about struggling with pedals and all the different things people struggle with learning. Okay? So everybody struggles. Man, woman, young, old, everybody struggles. We know this. So she said, still having problems with the pedals. Okay, that's the one I did yesterday, right? You're going to struggle with it till you get it, and then the light bulb is going to come on and you're going to be fine. She mentions that she couldn't find a good sitting position so she would get tense. Only thing I can say there is. We have. I've trained some female pilots with a short or a, you know, smaller frame. And some have used a pillow to help push them just a little bit forward in the seat, get it adjusted correctly to help them with sitting in the aircraft. So, you know, other than that, you got to find the aircraft that's going to be that you're going to be able to fit in and be comfortable in. If you're not comfortable or you're having trouble reaching the pedals, of course you're going to struggle with the pedals. It's going to be a problem. Okay. And then she says, I didn't get along with my instructors. Most of them had prejudiced prejudices against females. Okay. I'm sure any profession in the world, this goes on, right? Helicopter industry is predominantly male. We know this. But there's a lot of female helicopter pilots out there, too. And as I mentioned, in the 20 years I've done training, a lot of times a female is easier to train because they have a gentle touch. And you get a manly man in the helicopter, you know, And I've got some examples. And I can tell you the manliest man, the manliest of them have been a problem sometimes because they want to just, you know, on the control. So the gentle touch. I've seen some super ground instructors. Some of the things they've done on the ground school, just amazing. Okay? So again, it falls back to be the best you can be. I don't have prejudices against females. I have prejudices against helicopter instructors who have bad attitudes and don't even want to be doing it. And they're just out there logging time and they're mad and they're pissed off. And, you know, that's my prejudice. There is the Whirly Girls who. Holly was a part of the Whirly Girls. She came to us on a scholarship. Holly's one of the best I've ever seen. She did a super job. And the Whirly Girls is a organization that you can join as a female pilot. And they help. They give away a lot of scholarships. They network. So, you know, if you're struggling as a female getting into the industry, I'd highly recommend looking up the Whirly Girls because they can do a lot to help you out. So anyway, you know, a lot of trouble with instructors. Back to. I did a confidential poll to our members. Number four was problems with instructors. So this is common in the industry, female or male. Either way, you know, you got to find instructors who are willing to do what's right for you and do the right thing for you. Okay. There is good instructors out there, there are bad instructors out there, male or female, young or old. Okay. It depends on each individual instructor. I really love to fly though. I'm still scared of making mistakes. Okay, well, she's only got a couple hundred hours. A couple hundred hours. We're all scared of making mistakes. I started out as an instructor around 200 hours. Because I taught in Robinsons. I had to have 200 hours when I first went out. I was scared. You know, most of us are scared when we first go out and start instructing. It's a license to learn. You're going off the experience that you have. So she's got 200 hours, only 10 in the last four years. That's not much to be proficient. So, you know, this shouldn't be a stumbling block for her. She needs to get flying, she needs to get current. I do want to mention she's off the street to commercial. She does need to get her certified flight instructor rating because as a new commercial pilot, there's very few options out there for you. Most of the time the first option is going to be just be a cfi. So she needs to get that CFI rating to, to help make her more marketable. That'll give her more experience in the aircraft. That will give her more knowledge. Getting through that CFI checkride will build the confidence and it's going to help her move on with her career. Said in the country where she's at, the market for helicopters is almost non existent. Okay, this is a problem. She's probably going to have to relocate. If there's not much in her area, that's just the way it is. So she's probably gonna have to move to another country and she's gonna have to be willing to make that sacrifice in order to move on. And I understand that's big, but many people do it. People come from other countries to the US to train all the time. They get jobs over here. Some people stay, some people go back to their home country. You know, relocating is probably gonna be what she's gonna have to do. Probably no way around that. And she said, I don't think I'm good enough. At least not now. Okay. We all think that in the beginning you need recency in the helicopter. You need to get out and fly. If you can find the money to do the cfi, I highly recommend do the certified flight instructor rating. It's going to give you confidence, it's going to increase your knowledge. It's going to make you more marketable. I mean, and you got to study hard and be the best you can be. And she's saying that she's really good on the ground school, and I'm sure she is. So if you've got the knowledge, you can take that knowledge and transfer it into the aircraft and you will get confident. You know, when we start out as new instructors, the older instructors will tell you, hey, when you first start, don't go out the first day with your new students to start doing autos and hover autos. And, you know, don't go out. Start doing all the hard stuff. As a new CFI go out, just do the normal stuff going around the pattern, normal takeoffs, normal landings. Normally you're at a school where other people or more experienced constructors can kind of do the hard stuff and kind of let you, you know, work your way into the harder maneuvers. And I remember that. I remember talking to my instructors. I remember almost quitting in the beginning. I don't know if I've told this story in a while. I almost quit when I was a brand new CFI because we had a couple bad autos. I was with the owner of the company who was a weekend warrior private pilot. He was not a cfi and I believed that he could handle anything that was going to happen. And, you know, we almost. He almost killed us. And then I was going to quit and I talked to the examiner, who I did my private commercial with, legend in the industry, told him what happened and he kind of laughed at me. He said, now you've had your scare now. Now you know what can happen when you're not ready. You never, ever believe the guy beside you or the girl beside you has more experience than you or can handle anything better than you. Now it's happened to you. Now you know better. Never crawl in there and not have your hands near the controls and always be ready to take over if you have to. Especially a private pilot. Yes, the guy's got a couple hundred hours and he owns the aircraft, but he doesn't have the level of training of a cfi. He hasn't been through commercial training. He hasn't been through certified flight instructor school. So he said he's not. Doesn't matter if he's even got more hours than you. He's not trained to your level. So starting out, a lot of us don't have that much confidence. You will build your confidence with time and experience. It's the only way you get There, yes, the industry is a little backwards. You know, the industry starts, you know, starts out new. Instructors are usually young with not many hours. In general, you would think it would be the other way around, but that's not the way it works. So Lashes says, considering my lack of experience and the fact that I'm almost 40, which I want to hit this again too, I totally feel stuck doing something I don't like and wishing to fly. But that seems less and less plausible. Okay, I'm a dreamer. She says, I'm almost 40. I didn't start professionally until I was 36 years old. So if anybody tells you at 40 you're too old, that's bullcrap. You're already commercial pilot. You could get to the CFI. You're only 40 years old. People are instructing now into their 70s and 80s. You know, we have a ground school member, got his, his private. And a jet ranger. At 72, 40 is not too old. Not, you know, people are going to jump in and argue, no, you're not at 40, you're not. And to sit here and say I feel totally stuck doing something I don't like, well, man, go for your dream. I don't think at 40 it is plausible for you. You can do it. You're going to have to make sacrifices. But nothing in life is easy and it doesn't matter what profession it is. You know, people are always going to be naysayers. People are going to always tell you why you can't do something. My whole life's been that way. They said you'd never be a police officer. Because of my past. I did it. I wanted a towing service. I said, oh, they gave me all the reasons why I couldn't do it. I did it for 10 years. When I said I want to be a helicopter pilot, maybe fly someday ems, they said, oh, you'll, you're not smart enough and you'll never fly EMS because you'll never get enough hours. And at your age, baloney. I flew EMS five years. So people are going to tell you all the time why you can't do it. I think the two things boils back to the way I titled this video. Her lack of self confidence, which she can get and she will get by getting current in the aircraft, flying, doing whatever it takes, making some sacrifices to get out there. And as far as prejudices against females, I'm sure it happens, but it happens in any industry and there are a lot of great female pilots out there and there are companies that will hire you and that will look at you. Several of the females we've trained, if I'd had a place for them, you know, I'd have hired them. Holly, I hired her in a heartbeat. She wanted to work. If I'd have had, you know, the extra, you know, support of financially and enough people flying that I could have used her, I would have hired her in a heartbeat. No problem. Because she was, you know, one of the best CFIs I've ever done. But because she applied herself, she showed up to do cfi. We'd never met. She shows up with the super knowledge, was easy to work with, no chip on her shoulder, not trying to prove anything other than she'd applied herself. She did great in the aircraft, she did great in the, in the ground school. And you know, she's out there flying out. I haven't talked to her in a few months. I'm not sure exactly where she is, but she's, you know, she's out there flying industry. So put your comments down below to help out the female pilots that are, that are struggling. Put your comments down below. Good bad things you've seen some tips for from fellow or from the female pilots out there. What did you experience? Put down below what you. Which advice you could give her to help move her along. So I'm glad I got this email. Some of these daily videos I have kind of planned. I know, I know what I'm gonna do. But then when some of them pop in like this, I'm like, oh, this is a good one that I haven't talked about in a long time. I thought this is a really good one to hit. So I'm Kenny Keller, Helicopter Line Ground school. You can go below to link. There's a link for our private pilot membership. Well, for Helicopter Land Ground School, we have several memberships, but the private pilot's pretty hot right now. It's only $49 a month. All four of us at helicopter Land Ground School are working on re building or not rebuilding, updating the private pilot section. It's only $49 a month. You can keep it as long as you like. Keep it a month, keep it two months, cancel anytime. You can cancel and come back later. We have more and more people now that maybe do their private on the monthly, they take a break, come back a few months later, get the commercial for a few months, unsubscribe, and then come back and do CFI monthly. So you're always welcome to come back anytime. All of our courses, not all of our courses, the monthly and the yearly 24 hour free trial. When you go to helicopterground.com, you can sign up for any of the monthly or yearly memberships. 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