#80 Becoming A HELICOPTER PILOT Overcoming PERSONAL STRUGGLES

See, so you get to see it.

Right here, front row seats, my man.

Absolutely.

Can I inspire this morning with some sizzling bacon? This is Motivational Monday, Day 80 Coffee with Kenny. I want this coffee cup to be for you. Those overcoming personal struggles for your helicopter pilot license, as some call it, and or rating today make a difference. I'm Kenny Keller, creator helicopter line ground school. I normally fix bacon as I'm uploading the video and getting ready for it to premiere. But today I decided I'm going to.

Go ahead and make some bacon because.

I was hungry and I couldn't wait. I got something special for you, but I'm going to roll here in just a minute. Gabriel Hernandez, one of our online ground school members, has a very compelling story about how he made a difference in his own life. He talks about how helicopter online ground school also helped make a difference for him. So there make a difference theme and you can do it theme. You can do this. And we've talked about a lot of the struggles, money, instructors, all kinds of things. But today's a very special one where it's about a personal struggle. And I was very proud of this young man to get up in front of the camera, tell me what he had to tell me. No matter what it is you're struggling with, you can do this. If you're struggling trying to get the rating, see what this young man put himself through the day of this video. We had three online ground school members with us in the studio.

It was an amazing day.

And then I took Gabriel out for some autos after we got done with the interview. It's pretty cool. So let's check it out now.

We'll just give you. How about if I buy you. I'm just McDonald's later. Well, come on over here, Gabriel. Did you. I never asked him if he was. He wasn't sure about getting a cat. Yeah, too late. Here he is. So Gabriel's been a member for a couple years, right?

Probably three and a half.

Three and a half years.

So you started way back on the old website.

On the old website. Well, share. I don't know how much you want to share about your struggle. You know, are you comfortable sharing a little bit about. About what you went through, what your trouble, what your main hold up was getting through your rating. And because we all have struggles, whether it's money, time, medical, it's so common that people run into some kind of a dumb problem that drags out getting their rating. Yours was a medical problem? Yep.

First off, it's a little Surreal to meet you. I've probably listened to you more than I have my wife in the past three and a half years.

Well, that's all right. That's cool. I'm used to getting that reaction, and it's flattering like it. And it's cool. Lance. Yesterday, his wife was telling us about selling with power and telling us about dynamic rollover. And I'm going, holy cow. I go, you've heard. You've been at home listening to him go through the videos. And she's going, yep. And we're sitting here giggling and laughing about how his wife is talking about helicopter aerodynamics.

Yeah. So basically, you know, in 2006, I got a DUI, and I used to be more concerned about partying than I always would. Watch NASA tv and I was obsessed with aviation, but I didn't take the time to fly. When I started down that path, I realized that it would be an uphill climb to get my medical. So two psych evals, neuropsych eval, drug and alcohol rehab, and two and a half years of drug tests and, you know, getting breathalyzed every month. I finally got my medical on the second week of March of this year. And in the meantime, while I was waiting for that, I started my fixed wing add on and I soloed both on the same day.

Very nice.

Second week of March.

Very, very nice.

I finished my helicopter. I got my rating on April 15, and then I just finished my fixing out on rating this past week.

Nice. So I commend you for having the guts to get on camera and talk about that, because I have another friend and member that went through the same thing. And when I first started flying was in 1997. And honestly, I'll be transparent. You know, I had to. I had to steer away from my friends, most of them, the people that I hung out with, because I couldn't live that life anymore. I mean, literally the people I spent the most time with, what did we do? We all drank. So I'm just. I'm being transparent. And pretty quickly, you start learning to fly, and I start realizing, wow, I can't, you know, I can't go take a helicopter lesson and be even remotely hungover. I have to be rested, I have to feel good. And so I. To separate myself from people that I hung out with all the time because I was like, you know what? I want to do this. And I got to knock off the drinking and I got to focus on what I need to do, and I need to be. Get to bed at night. And get up and feel good. And I even had a routine. I had to, if I didn't leave on time, stop and get my orange juice and my milk and my donut. And if I didn't have everything right on the way to the lesson, the lesson would be crappy. But on a day I showed up feeling good and stopped and had time, everything would go good. So that's awesome for you to share your story and have the guts to be on camera telling people that, but that shows that, you know, when you put your mind to it and you decide you got something you want to do, you can overcome the things that have held you back in the past. So that's a freaking awesome story. And I commend you for having the guts to get up here and say that.

That's amazing.

I mean, and a long road. Yeah, it's actually amazing. I don't know what to say. I mean, I've had plenty of struggles in my life. That's part of what a lot of this is about and the ground school is about and why. I guess I feel like I'm fairly successful with it because I've always been. I try to be pretty transparent, and I share all the different things that I've struggled with. We're human beings. We all have problems. We get down. We have family death, or we have depression over this, or, you know, a long list of reasons why we can sit around and feel sorry for ourselves and find reasons to not go do what we want to do. And then there's those of us who overcome those things and just say, you know what? I'm just gonna charge forward and do what I want to do and make things happen. So thank you again. That's awesome. Yeah.

I found your site the same way a lot of other people do. The first school I attended didn't even talk about ground school. They didn't even mention ground school. It wasn't even an option. The owner just wanted to fly, fly, fly. And I used yours as definitely an immersion tool. It was every day, most of the day, for a long time. And especially the word for word emergency procedures. I watched that section in great repetition, and I can still hear the words. I mean, if you're just reading through the poh. As simple as it was.

Nice. I know. I hear that a lot, too. Like, even Brian Rutledge, who's our operations manager, flies out in California, works for sheriff's department. Big. You know, I look up to Brian because he flies for sheriff's department. He's chief pilot. He's lead instructor now and I helped him with the cfi. And I can remember him going, kenny, you know, your words were in my head when I'm answering the examiner. You know, I'm hearing your voice and your words come out of my mouth. So that's cool when I hear that because I'm just amazed at what I've been able to do and amazed at people like you that took a chance on me to spend the money to buy this training from this hillbilly in Indiana, crazy talking weirdo, and then take it and use it. And to have the success that we've had is just amazing.

So I'm also looking forward to an instrument course as well. Yeah, it's going to be my first question.

We're committed now that we're standing here talking about it. Yeah, well, okay, not so cool. And so I'm whining going, well, but it took this and took that and it destroyed me. And da da, da. She goes, yeah, but if you, if that wouldn't have happened to you, would you have what you have now today? And I go, no, you're right, you're right, Courtney. I'm sitting here whining and complaining about this helicopter that ruined me. But in turn I took the debt. You know, helicopter goes away and I got a quarter million dollars of debt and I got nothing. It's like, what sense does that make? So I was do or die. Make helicopter ground school go or go work at the McDonald's drive thru, you know, do something else. I had no choice. I couldn't. This is sad to say I couldn't. I was never going to repay that debt from going getting a helicopter job because they don't pay helicopter pilots. Unfortunately, that's the industry. I mean, I worked all those years to get an EMS job and then you started me at $46,000 a year. Okay, I had to have 2,000 hours. I had to bust my butt. I had to spend all that money. And you're gonna pay me $46,000 a year to be an EMS pilot. Why? The company just keeps getting richer and richer and richer anyway. That's why you don't work for the Man. That's why I don't work for the Man.

Can't do it.

Too outspoken. Too have to. I have to make it on my own. That's why I work hard, because I have to. I have no choice. Oh, you're asking me good questions and bringing up good stuff to talk about. What else you got?

I'm envisioning you Doing autos into this Runway. I haven't been in this area at all. But you know those older videos you're doing autos in?

Yep.

I wish we could go fly today. I didn't bring anything with me. I didn't plan on being able to.

Stop by, but if I can figure out a way. When do you gotta leave?

I'm driving back to New York.

But, you know, maybe if I can. If I promise you a helicopter flight, you'll hang around a little bit we can go do. I just shot two new videos. I did two autos the other day by myself. I did a straight in a 180. Because I was out filming some stuff for this launch. I'm like, you know what? While I'm out and the camera's rolling, let's do straight in, and then let's do a 180. And I filmed those. But if I could con Steven to getting online for about a half an hour and yuk talking and keeping things going, his eyeballs are rolling. A half an hour? You just said 23 minutes. Oh, my God. I feel like I've been here all day. Maybe if we can have the helicopter ready to go, deal in it, or we can just run out, jump in, we go do at least 15 minutes. We do. There you go. You guys can get on here and talk about online businesses and publishing books. I'm not saying no. I'm just saying half an hour could be extreme.

You know what?

We're gonna do an auto. We have the one video that we want to roll so everybody can have a break, have a breather. That's 30 minutes. You and I will go do a couple autos. What do you say? For you coming here, being out here and getting in front of this camera and telling your story, and I gotta. And I gotta get Dan a flight too, somehow. How much longer you're gonna be around? Till Friday. Till Friday. I promise to get you a flight into. And in walks the Texan. Lance here walks. In walks the Texan.

Thank you, Ken.

Thank you. And I really, honestly appreciate you about having tears to get up here and share your story like that and be honest with people. That's amazing.

Absolutely.

And grateful to be here. And you should be very proud of what you've been able to do. That gives me goosebumps. I mean, nice job, man.

Thank you.

Nice job going after it and sticking with it and getting there and getting through the issues you had to get through to get it done.

Thank you.

It's awesome. Appreciate it very much. It's. All right.

This is looking good. This is hardwood smoked. Mmm, some of the best bacon I've.

Had and it's really, really good.

So that's right. Bacon every day. And if bacon is the one that gets me, I win. Share your motivational story. Share your struggle down below. We want to hear what struggle did you have to overcome? Or what struggle are you working to overcome? Day 80 Coffee with Kenny this is amazing. I gotta thank everybody for tuning in every day. Commenting Liking Please subscribe the channel if.

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Spring is here.

I'm so excited. Videos on the lake coming soon.