#67 HELP I'm struggling with RADIO CALLS between TOWERED AIRPORTS

All right, coffee number three, finishing up, and I got a cool cup I want to show you. And the question today, I got from a member who's like, kenny, help. I'm struggling, going from airspace to airspace, switching frequencies, and making the radio calls. So I'm gonna do my best to help him. I'm gonna show you a cup here just sent into a viewer. I opened it up live on Facebook just for fun, because most of these videos we keep on YouTube, Facebook doesn't get them. So I'm teasing the Facebook crowd to come. Coffee with kenny.com. so I open up this cup. Man, this coffee's taking forever. Jeez. Well, I'm waiting on that Pantera shirt from overseas. Actually got this from a member prior to coffee with Kenny with the coffee cup today. This is from Dale Gardner from Oklahoma. That's the longest coffee I've ever seen. Boy, I sure didn't time that out right. I'm so excited. This is so much fun. I'm having such a flipping blast. It's unbelievable. Day 67. So this is what a viewer sent me. Check that out. Coffee with Kenny Hoggs. How cool is that? Thanks again, Del. So to get right to the meat of the members question, I remember what it's like when you're learning to fly and you're trying to talk on the radio. That in itself can be, you know, kind of tough. And then when it comes to going from airspace to airspace, especially when they're close together, that can be a struggle too. So I guess my first question to this member would be, are you using an E board? Okay. Mentally preparing for anything we talk about in training is always going to be a good thing. So if you're struggling going along several different airspace changes, I would recommend, number one, are you using an eboard? Because you could have the frequencies written out in order, you know, rewrite them, even in reverse order. Because I believe his email said he struggles going one direction and coming back through the different airspaces. Probably memorizing those numbers would be best, but are you using an E board? Put those frequencies down on a knee board. Mentally practicing what your radio calls are and getting experience. I don't remember how many hours he said he had. I'm guessing it's low hours. In the beginning, it is tough to fly the aircraft, reach down with your hands, change frequencies, monitor the aircraft. But you got to remember, flying the aircraft is number one. You don't want to lose control or get yourself in a bad situation because you're monkeying with radios. But I understand when you're jumping from airspace to airspace, I can think of one in particular where we flew along a coastline and we had Class Bravo and then a Class Delta and a Class Delta. We had a little bit of a break between the Bravo and the Delta, but then we had two Deltas like, boom. So being ready, being confident, having time in the aircraft is going to help you. Having the numbers out on your leg, practicing what you're going to say, knowing what you're going to say, it's going to get easier with time. I want to keep this a little bit generic because depending on which helicopter you're flying, you may be able to add some collective friction in order to keep that collective in place while you make your radio changes. So I fly Robinson Zenstrom's one side. You, you know, pic in one aircraft on one side, pic on the other side. And then as an instructor, right, we get versed in both sides. So depending on which side you're sitting on, first is can you set some collective friction while you make your radio changes? Make sure you have the aircraft stable. If you're kind of, you know, if you're descending a little bit or you're, if you're, if you're not stable and then you're trying to fix that while you're playing with the radio, that's going to be a problem, too. So maybe slow down a little bit. Another idea would be in between those airspaces that are close together. When you come out of one and clear with this, with that company, let's say you've only got a minute or two before the next one comes up. And let's say you're struggling, if you could, and you're uncontrolled, do a big 360. You know, take, take a break, do a big 360. As you're getting your thoughts in order, as you're getting the frequencies ready to go. Cockpit management is. Can be very tough and you're going to get better with practice. But seeing at home, doing the armchair flying, practicing the radio calls, driving to the airport, we've had a lot of people saying that, that, you know, driving to the airport, they're practicing their radio calls out loud, driving to their lesson. That's a good one. Having the aircraft stable, knowing can you lock the collective or not, can you put a certain amount of friction on to keep that steady? And then it's just a matter of switching your hands, reaching down, tuning, hitting the buttons. Hand back to the cyclic, other hand back to the collective. You're going to get good with practice. And if you're really struggling toward the point where you think it's even dangerous, get some more instruction with your instructor. Have your instructor go through this route with you a couple times. I still think kneeboard, being comfortable in the aircraft, taking your time, mentally thinking about the radio calls that are coming up. The more you do it, the better you're going to get. We do have a free radio communications course that any one of you can take. I'll put the link down below. We've been updating the videos in that free course. A lot of people are really enjoying it and we'll continue to update those videos. Some of them are older, several of them are brand new. We'll continue to work with that because we like the free radio communications course because a lot of people ask questions about radio communications. I've done a couple videos since we've been doing Coffee with Kenny on radio communications. It goes back to sounding confident on the radio, practicing mentally thinking about what you're going to say. The more you do it, the better you're going to get. So I highly recommend going below and taking our free radio course. So we'd love to hear your comments down below. Tips and tricks and things you've used. Learning to use radios. What may be a tip or trick that you used on switching your hands from the controls, reaching down, doing the radios. But I honestly believe practice is what's going to make you better. Experience is what's going to make you better. In the beginning, when you're learning to fly, it is a struggle to control the aircraft. Talk on the radio, change frequencies. It's called what they call pilot workload. And at times pilot workload can be very, very heavy. I was lucky. When I was early in my career, I was flying in this area where we had a Bravo and a couple Deltas and we were doing news reporting. We'd have three radios. We're talking to tower or approach on one radio. We're talking to the news station on another frequency, and then we're talking to the other helicopters that are usually at some kind of event. When you get called out in the helicopter to do news filming, you're talking to the other helicopters that are circling the event. So at times we could be on there operating three different radios at the same time, trying to talk, communicate, fly the helicopter. How did I get good at it? I got good at it by practice. I got good at it by making sure I had a knee board, making sure I had all the frequencies written down, memorizing Those frequencies is a big, huge help. But you're going to get better with practice. More time on the seat, more time out there flying. Let us know what kind of tips that you might use for being in the helicopter. Learning how to do your cockpit, management, how to fly, keep it stable, what you might be doing with your hands. I think it's pretty basic. Number one is fly the aircraft. Always, always, always fly the aircraft. And if you got time, slow down a little bit. You know, don't fly so fast. If you're flying 90 or 100, slow down to 60. 60 is always a. Usually a pretty minimum safe speed for about any helicopter. And if you're not ready to make, ready to make that call and you're struggling with frequencies, if you're uncontrolled, maybe do a big old 360. But take your time and breathe. I guess that's the other thing I could say my last big tip would be. I know over the years I can remember getting frustrated, getting nervous with a workload in an aircraft. You got to just go, you got to take a big deep breath and go, okay, I can get through this. I gotta think about it. Luckily, I had some other experiences in my life prior to becoming a pilot. Being a police officer and being on a fire department. And you know, you have those moments where your heart's just racing and you have to go, big deep breath. I can get through this and just find that inner strength. Calm down, breathe in and out and breathe in and out. Seems very simple. But you don't know how many times in 20 years of teaching where I look over and somebody's not breathing. And when I was a brand new instructor, I had a guy checking me out and I wasn't breathing right. Transitioning to a different aircraft, a new airport, new area. And he kept going, hey, you're not breathing. And over the years, I've found myself doing that with students over and over. They're struggling. You look over and they're not breathing. They're just like. So breathe in and out. When you're nervous, you're trying to work yourself through these radio calls, handling the controls. Big, deep breath, breathe in and out and think about it. So give us your comments down below. I'm so excited. This was day 67. There's a few days left on our biggest sell ever. Crazy kenny sell. Crazy. 40 is the discount code. This is off yearly and professional pilot memberships, not the monthly. And a note to all yearly members. Yearly is a subscription if you want to keep it for year two. Great. If you don't want to be billed for year number two, make sure in that first year you go in and remove your credit card from settings inside the HOG site. Or go into PayPal and end your subscription and PayPal. Or email me and I'll do it for you. Kennyelicopterground.com it's faster and easier if you can do it, but if you can't figure it out, we'll do it for you. You got a whole entire year to take care of this and unsubscribe if you don't want year number two. All right, got to get on with my day. This has been awesome. Thank you. Thanks again, Dell, for the cup. I'm also excited as we hit 5 million views on YouTube. For some people, not a big deal, right? For me, it's a big deal. I'm really happy with the 5 million views. Took me 8 or 9 years to get there. And our subscribers, we're about to break 17,000. Please subscribe the channel for us. My other personal goal is to hit 20,000 subscribers. And of course we'll go on past that. But over the years, I was thinking, man, I wish that 5 million views and 20,000 subscribers. Those are some pretty good numbers. And we're almost there. We got to 5 million. Now I want to hit the 20,000 subscribers. So do us a favor, subscribe. When you do, click the bell. That way you'll be notified of the daily coffee with Kenny videos. Anything else cool that we got coming up? So I got to thank everyone again for sending me the coffee cups, shirts, interacting on these videos, commenting liking. Absolutely. 100% flipping incredible. I have to thank each and every one of you. Thank you very much.