Kenny Keller (creator of Helicopter Online Ground School) recounts how seeing the 1983 movie Blue Thunder inspired him to pursue a career as a helicopter pilot and later become an LAPD pilot. He describes early struggles while building his online school (living in a one-bedroom apartment with his daughter), notes he has run the online ground school for about seven-and-a-half years, and gives practical advice for aspiring helicopter pilots — start with an introductory flight, learn as much as possible, and use his courses and free videos. He also invites viewers to share their own origin stories and points them to resources (website, courses, Amazon books, daily videos, and a member "wall of fame").
Questions this video answers
1983.
#238.
Seven and a half years.
Chapters
So you want to learn to fly helicopters. This is where it all started for me back in 1983, right there. Going to this theater to see the movie Blue Thunder. So this is day 238, coffee with Kenny inspired yesterday. Day 237, coffee with Kenny. Two young men right away asked questions about getting started and they're getting out of high school and, and looking at a helicopter pilot career. And I thought, okay, this is a great video I've been wanting to make for years. Anyway, this is what started started for me. I actually, you know, as a kid, grew up with a verde bird and toy helicopters and was always fascinated with them and knew I wanted to do it and I knew I wanted to be a cop. And fresh out of high school, coming over here with my high school sweetheart to this theater, in seeing that movie, freaking did it for me. I mean, that was. That was it. I just thought, how cool would that be flying helicopters in LA for lapd? And I did become a cop and I've never put the two together. I then become a helicopter pilot. So the helicopter pilot thing has been my career, but this is where it all started. And another fun part of the story. I am Kenny Keller, Creator Helicopter Line Ground School and for those of you wanting to get in, that's the best way to start learning. And I've been online seven and a half years. The first five years, as I was building that another fun part of the story, I lived right here, right beside that theater. So who knew many years later, as I'd be trying to build this online helicopter ground school and get my life back on track, that it would. I would end up living right beside the theater that started it all many years ago. That is theater was closed for many years and they're reopening it not as a standard movie theater. There'll be some other things going on there. And I wish the light was completely lit up tonight because that thing's fabulous. When that's lit up on the top and the lights are lit up on the bottom, it's just amazing. But. But I just wanted to share this video tonight and I'd love to hear your story on what pushed you over the edge that made you want to become a helicopter pilot. So for those two young gentlemen, you know, it was. For me, it was growing up, interested in them, but then going to see a movie right there all those years ago is what started it for me. So I wanted to share this video real quick just because it's an important part of my story and a lot of people that's been following the Coffee with Kenny videos. And a lot of our members would appreciate to know that's where it started. In the first five years of Helicopter on Ground school I was living up here in this little tiny apartment with my daughter. One bedroom apartment, gave her the bedroom and for a while I was sleeping on the floor until I could afford to get a couch. Later that became my bedroom was the living room. So just a fun part of the story I wanted to share tonight. I am again, I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Line Ground School. You can go down below to check all, check out all of our courses, Private, commercial, CFI and instrument. The two young men that asked the questions last night. I'm gonna type them up questions in the comments below the videos and we have some videos on those subjects that they asked about because they're in high school, getting out, going, you know, just ask us some basic questions. And I've covered those things already in videos so I'm going to go ahead and just send them links to those previous videos so they can kind of get a handle on where I think they should start. But you know, being the best you can be, be as knowledge knowledgeable as you can be, learn as much as you can. And if you're just thinking about it and you haven't done an introductory flight yet, that's where I'd start. Scrounge up the money, go take an introductory flight, then see where it goes from there. So there you go, that's where it all started for me. So give us a like subscribe to the channel. When you do, click that little bell so you can be notified of our daily video. We do all kinds of cool stuff daily. We're talking about training, checkrides, getting your test, we're talking about failures, we're talking about successes. We share the success of our members. We have what we call the Helicopter on the Ground School wall of fame where we're, we share those pictures after they get their license, the helicopter pilot's license. They're all excited and they send us pictures when we put those up. So you can learn about any of this down below@helopterground.com we also got a couple of Amazon number one best selling books you can check out. We ship you those for just shipping and handling. That's down below at helicopter ground helicopterground.com as well. So go in the description box below to check out that, go below, make us a comment, let us know where your helicopter career started, what pushed you over the edge and made you go forward. If you're currently a helicopter pilot, like, subscribe, give us a thumbs up. See you the next video.
