Kenny Keller (creator of Helicopter Online Ground School) answers viewer Alan’s questions about beginning helicopter PPL training. Keller explains that online ground school teaches the knowledge (useful regardless of flight school), recommends contacting a local helicopter training center to schedule an introductory flight (no prior knowledge required), and outlines the exam sequence: a pre-solo test before solo, the FAA written test before the practical (oral + flight) test. He states the FAA minimum flight time for private helicopter is 40 hours (national average ~50–60; many students need 50–70+; he had 88), and notes his program operates under Part 61 (not Part 141). He describes product details: a playlist of 16 beginner videos, 24-hour trial access, monthly/yearly subscriptions, and a one-time professional pilot package with 30-day money-back guarantee.
Questions this video answers
40 hours
About 50–60 hours (often 50–70+).
88 hours (he failed his first time and had to retest).
No; he operates as a Part 61 flight school.
Chapters
All right, so. All right, day 201, coffee with Kenny. Here we go. We got the our little kitchenette backer background here at the hogs hangar. And I am Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter online ground school. I have a question from Alan and this is for somebody just starting out. A lot of people are interested and they don't know, right. So Alan says, hello, Kenny. I'm interested in pursuing my helicopter ppl. Due to my naive knowledge, I'm unsure how helicopter on land ground schools accepted integrated into my local pilot training school. First off, helicopter land ground school is to help you learn the knowledge. It really doesn't matter where you're going or where you're flying. And whether they accept or not, it's about your knowledge. If you show up and you have the knowledge, you have the knowledge. It's exactly what it is. So can you help me understand this process? For example, take helicopter online ground school. Helicopter online ground school is designed to help you through private, commercial, CFI and instrument. All four of those ratings we have, it's a whole series of videos. We have written test practice and it helps prepare you for the written test, the oral test and the flight test. Step two, contact my local helicopter pilot training center and show them something. You don't need to show them anything. You can get started taking lessons by calling up and saying, hey, I'd like to take an introductory helicopter flight. That's it. You don't need anything, you don't have to know anything, you don't have to go buy anything. Basically you just get started. And that surprises a lot of people. And I can remember back when years ago when I looked into it, you know, I had somehow ended up with a big pile of books and somebody had steered me in the wrong direction. I thought I had to do a bunch of studying beforehand. That's not the case. You call up your local flight school, you tell them you've never flown before, you're interested in introductory flight. A lot of schools have a special, usually a discounted rate. Some do, some do not. So there's nothing you have to do. And then call your flight school, schedule your introductory flight, and I recommend you do that, Alan. Take exams. Well, the exams don't come until you get started. Through the training, you start learning the ground school. Your first exam will come before you solo. They have to administer, administer a pre solo test, but your flight school will do that with you at your flight school before you solo. Then the written test that you have to have, that happens somewhere between starting flying and taking your Practical test, which is the oral test and flight test. The written has to be done first. We tell people it's really nice to have that done before you even solo, but hard for most people to do unless they really start hitting the books. But the earlier you get that written test done, the better off you are. But you're not required to have it done at most schools until you know prior to taking the practical test. So there isn't any exams right away. You can start learning, you can start flying a cure. 40 hours of flight time. 40 hours is the minimum for someone off the street going for private pilot. National average is more like 50 to 60. If you get done in 40 hours, you're lucky, but probably is not going to happen. Realistically, you're probably going to be more like 50, 60, 70 hours. I had 88 because I failed my first time. Had to go back and retest. And that's the reason why I created helicopter online ground school is to help you not fail. Because I know the pain and I've been there. How does this all work together? Are there some schools that do not recognize your online education? Again, helicopter land ground school is designed to help you learn the information regardless of where you're flying you can be. We have plenty of people now that show up at their flight school with incredible knowledge and blow the flight school away before they even start flying. If that's what you choose to do. Over the years we've said it really works best to study and fly at the same time. Right? Because if you try to learn all the concepts before flying, it's very hard to take that knowledge that you're reading and learning or watching in our videos. It's hard to apply that knowledge in the aircraft. So you can learn as much as you want prior to starting. But it does work the best when you're studying and you hear a concept, then you get in the helicopter and then the light bulb comes on, you go, oh, okay. We just had one of our ground school members made a comment on an aerodynamic video and he's like, well, I didn't really understand that. Well, you're not going to understand every concept the first time. Some of these concepts are kind of complicated. The more you go over it, the more you learn, the more you absorb. It does get easier over time. Is it recognized? A lot of flight schools are now recommending they use our ground school. I've had just recently had a student say, oh, my school said, use this other flight school. While the other online education is a fixed wing program. So I don't know why their school recommends a fixed wing program for helicopter flying, but hey, whatever. And then his last question, are you part 141 accredited? No, I operate as a part 61 flight school, but I only do flight training for just members on a limited basis. So our training is not what you would call a part 141 school. And the reason for that is if you go to a 141 school, they're going to be following a strict guideline on their on a syllabus for your ground training and your flight training as it works together. And that's with a lot of oversight from the FAA. Part 141 of school is great. Some schools are part 141, some are not. Thank you for your patience with these questions. So there you go, Alan. And I'm gonna, and I'm gonna recommend in the email to Alan, I'm gonna put the link down below this video we have a playlist of 16 videos that goes through and explains a lot of these things for the beginner, for somebody that's just starting out and I'll give you some examples, basic facts from someone researching helicopter online training. Can I use your online ground school before starting flight training? Ground school on iPad, iPhone, laptop, desktop. What's the cost for helicopter? Private pilot, Private pilot, helicopter. What other requirements? How many hours for the helicopter? Add on and it goes on down the list. So we've put this playlist together for those of you just starting out and I recommend you go through those 16 videos. They're 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 9 minutes, 10 minutes. But it's hard to answer all these questions. Just like in this email to Alan. He asked a lot of questions and that's great. And I did the quick version. I could spend the next hour and a half going deeper and deeper into those questions. So I'll put this playlist down below that any of you can go check out. If you're new to this and you have all these questions, go through those 16 videos and you'll have a much better understanding of how it all works. So do us a favor and like subscribe the channel. Day 201. This is where have Sylvan Blast. Every day we're doing topics on helicopter training, helicopter checkrides, careers, sharing successes, talking about people's failures, including my failure. I talk about mine all the time. I will mention this is just a thought. This year at Tele Expo, one of our ground school members contacted me and she said, yeah, I was talking to so and so and this guy's involved with another online education program. And she said, yeah, he was telling me about this guy was going, whoa, yeah, but he felt on this and he did this and. And she said, yeah, we already know all of Kenny's failures, you know, so it's kind of funny that, you know, here's somebody at Heli Expo bashing me in my program. Well, he, you know, lost his ass in a helicopter business and blah, blah, blah. And she's like, yeah, well I already know all that stuff, right? So that's, that's part of the beauty of helicopter online ground school and our daily videos. I use myself as the example most of the time on the dumb shit that we do and the problems that we have and the stupid stuff that just happens and we can save you a lot of headache and heartache because I have been there, done that and I've made all the stupid mistakes. So like subscribe, put your comments down below. I'll put a link down below for helicopter online ground school where you can check out our training. There's a 24 hour test flight for the private commercial CFI and instrument. All those links are all below. You can check out the training for 24 hours and not be billed on the monthly and yearly memberships. If you decide it's not right for you, just pull your credit card information before the end of the 24 hours and you'll be billed nothing or you keep the training. Go month to month, keep as long as you like, cancel anytime. Same with the yearly, it's a subscription. Keep it for a year. If you don't want the second year, make sure you go in and remove your credit card info or end it in PayPal. And then we got the big professional pilot package becoming more and more popular. More and more people are taking that option. And that's for the person who wants all the training, wants to keep it and doesn't want to worry about being billed again. Because the professional pilot is not a subscription. It's a one time fee where you get the private commercial, CFI and instrument all together. You keep it as long as you need it. Whether it takes you a year to get your ratings or five years to get your ratings, training will be there. And that comes with a 30 day ironclad money back, no hassle guarantee. Alright, give us a. Like there's a little thumbs up button down below this video. Go click that for me. And if you don't like the video, there's a dislike one. Click that one twice because that way you'll give us the double. You don't like it? Hell, yeah. All right, See you in day 202. Have a great day, and peace out. Hey, do. Do. Day. Hundred, damn it.
