Enstrom Flight Debrief today with 2018 Flight Instructor of the Year Taz Christman

All right, here he is. 2018 Flight Instructor of the year. We just went out in the Enstrom and did our flight. Taz ran three cameras. So we've got some of that footage upstairs. We've sifted through some of the footage. It's really cool. And we're gonna put together a nice video that you can see later that we'll put up. We'll still check out a little bit of it here in just a few minutes. But before we go upstairs to check out some of that footage, we just wanted you to see the instrument. And I wanted Taz to tell you just a little bit about what he does. He's got a long resume, and I talk about him all the time, but I don't always remember the types of things that he flies. I want him to tell you about first. You work for the Air Force? Yep. Tell us whatever you can tell us about that.

Yeah, I've been in the air force for 17 years now. And I started out in Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, learning how to fly T37s and T38s. And then they kept me there as a T38 instructor. So I was in Oklahoma for just shy of six years, mainly flying the T38s there.

Nice.

And then after that, I went on to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, where I learned how to fly the mighty B1 bomber. And then.

That's awesome.

And then after that, they sent me up to South Dakota, where I actually, I learned to fly in Abilene. And I was stationed up in Ellsworth In Rapid City, S.D. was up there for about four years. And then about six and a half years ago, they moved me to Las Vegas where I started flying the MQ9. It's a RPA, or remotely pilot Aircraft. And I've been doing that for the last six and a half years now.

So that's part of what he does. I've been to Vegas, this house a couple times. I know how busy he is. Works at Air Work Las Vegas? Yep. Tell everybody what you fly in Las Vegas at Air Work. Okay.

So I'm the chief fixed wing instructor at Airwork Las Vegas, and I also do helicopter instruction there. Our owner, he's got way more hours in helicopter than I do. And so he's a DPE as well as the owner. So he's the chief rotor wing guy. But I do both. And we've got one Cessna 172s, Cherokee, 180s arrows. I got a decathlon that I do aerobatics in. And then on the helicopter side we've got a bunch of Schweitzer, three hundreds, Robinson 22 and Robinson 44s. So pretty much we got it all. You can fly at anything at air work.

So do you know how many aircraft total that you are checked out in or you teach in currently?

Oh man. Probably seven or eight.

Nice. So he was awarded Flight Instructor of the year 2018. When I saw a comment on the earlier video, somebody said, taz Instructor of the Year. What? Question mark. I thought everybody knew because I'm always bragging about him. He won that this past year in 2018. That is from the FAA and it's national Flight Instructor of the Year. So it's a pile of or taken from every flight instructor in the U.S. yeah. Correct.

Yeah. Well, the ones that applied that applied for it.

Okay. But still it's not like it's a sector or it's just helicopters or airplanes. It is on a national level flight structure of the year.

Yes.

So that is awesome. So there's the instrument. We're gonna run upstairs and we want to show you a little bit of that footage. We did some autos and normal takeoffs and landings. And I'm going to put the camera over my shoulder here and Taz tell them about. He had no prior experience in the instrument.

None.

Lots of Switzer time. Always out, you know, working, doing autos. But as we head upstairs, just kind of give us. What was your first actual thought climbing the instrument when we started up, went out to fly. Just give us kind of your initial what you thought, what were you thinking, how to feel.

It's a good looking helicopter. It. I do a lot of flying in Robinsons as well as the Schweitzer. And to me it seemed like this is the best out of both of those. So it's got the speed and the versatility of the Robinsons, but it handles very much like the Schweitzer, like a bigger helicopter. So it's nice and smooth, nice and stable.

That's what I was telling him was with his Schweitzer time that he has, I said the instrument is going to be a really easy transition for you because of mainly the trim hat and so just a lot of things about it that I thought would be very similar. So I'm gonna grab this for me. I'm running over and start this video. This is Taz's 180 auto that he just did. So we're gonna roll that for you so you get a little glimpse of what we did. So while you're doing that, tell us specifically what just kind of what you were thinking and feeling as you were doing this 180 auto.

So I was expecting it to drop like a rock, like the Schweitzer, but it didn't. It basically it glides very well. And that was kind of surprising to me. I had lots of time to think about where I wanted to go and it didn't seem very rushed at all. It was nice and smooth. So I really didn't know what to expect after the first one. Obviously you demonstrated one to me and it was pretty much perfect. But so I wanted to get something close to that and it turned out okay. I was for the first 180 auto and the helicopter I've never flown, I thought it turned out okay.

We came in pretty close to the numbers. That's what we were shooting for, which we didn't even get. Really. I wasn't super technical. I'm like, ah, just getting that. Just General City. I just want you to get a feel for the instrument, what it feels like. And again, as he already said, you know, going from instrumentals or sweatshirt instrument.

Yeah.

You didn't have any trouble. I mean if he went through the startup, it's different for the.

It's a little bit different.

Engagement was different for you. But from the minute you picked it up, you had no trouble at all. Yeah, no trouble hovering, no trouble taking off, really no trouble with the auto.

Very stable.

So just kind of proof to that. You know, we talk about transitioning a lot from the Robinsons to the Enstrom, so that'd be fun again. While Tad was here, Taz was here. I got this flight for him that I voted him because he's taken me out in the Schweitzer in Vegas a bunch of times. So I promised him this flight a year and a half ago or two years ago. So we finally got it. So we just wanted to share that with you. We will edit it up. There's three cameras with over an hour footage each. So it wasn't like we could all come in and just you this wonderful video tonight. This takes a little time. That's their big files. Taz is going to be around this week because he is going to film our OR is going to do our next webinar on Selling with Power. So that's going to be coming up. So the other thing we want to mention is I'll make Taz call. Hold the camera here for a minute. We haven't been together in the same place to talk a lot about this. We authored this together, top 10 checkride tips. And the kind of cool section in here that I want to highlight is Taz went out and talked with examiners in Vegas. So I'm gonna let Mick, you hand me the camera back and tell us what you proposed to these examiners when you went out there and asked.

So the big thing I was telling them is I told them, basically, I was writing a book with you, and it was on the top checkride issues or mistakes or things that would make a checkride go easier for a student. And they all were happy to tell me what. What they've been seeing on their checkrides. And so that's what I did. I wrote down, I think I did like 10, 15 of them or something like that, and just went through and put them all together and kind of what they were seeing. And then what you as a. As a student would want to do to correct for that and then how to prepare for a check ride. I kind of put my little two cents in there as well for that. So.

Awesome. And what I want to say is we got this big pile right here. I'm going to make Taz sign each one of these before he leaves and goes back to Vegas, and we'll both sign them together. So not that many times we'll be together. We can sign a book together. So we'll get all these signed up. You can get it for seven bucks with our current promotion. We bought the book. This is. We've paid for it. It's right here. We ship it to you for seven bucks. All you got to do is sign up at the link that I'll put near this video and we'll ship it to you anywhere for $7, cost of shipping and handling. And we'll sign all these. So if you're while supplies last, get one signed by both me and Taz. I'm gonna try to wrap it up here because we're two days away from Christmas. Taz has got a lot of family to visit with. He will be back to do the FAA webinar. So we both want to get out of here and go doing some other things. So what else do I want to say? Oh, yeah, I promised that he'd answer any questions. So we'll be hanging around here for a little bit. And then, of course, he'll be monitoring, I'm sure, comments after the fact. So if you want to ask Taz a question, just type it in the description box below, and we'll either answer it while we're Hanging around, getting ready to leave or, you know, whenever. Our biggest fan, I have to say, 2018 flight instructor of the year is one of our top five fans of all time. If nobody comments, at least Taz Christman probably commented or made a like, on the helicopter on ground school stuff. So he always knows what you're putting and saying on our social media.

I'm like, Santa, Yeah, he's watching.

Always watching. He's always there. If he can possibly be there, he. He will be, man. Anything else I wanted to say or something else that just came to mind? That's all right. Well, we'll think. I'll think of something. So. Oh, Taz, if you don't know yet, performed a majority of the instrument training videos that we have inside the instrument course in helicopter line ground school. Taz did a majority of those. So this is the quality of type of people you have making videos for you out there. And. And we just recently had a member in our own Facebook group go, hey, what are you guys using for training for instrument? And I'm like, dude, you've. We have an instrument course. Why are you in our own group asking what other guys are using? We have the only fully fledged helicopter ground school. We're not a like the other instrument courses out there that are airplane instrument courses with a helicopter supplement. We're not supplement. We are 100% helicopter. All right, so I'm gonna wrap it up again, put your comments down below, make sure you say something to Taz for all his efforts, and congratulate him on 2018 flying structure of the year, because that's just flipping incredible. So put your comments in there. We'll do our best to get them answered yet tonight, and we will see you all in the next video. See it sa.