Helicopter Commercial Applicant Interview at the HOGS hangar!

Live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com Are you recording? Yeah. Hey, I got something really cool for you. One of our Hogs members is right here on the couch beside me getting ready to sign his picture that Heather just pulled out up the Hogs Wall of Fame. This is our new hangout area. There's a new video coming out. Our editor slash cameraman running the camera right now is editing up our first FAC experience of the year. It's going to be one of the highest quality produced videos we've ever done. And we haven't told you about what happened. You can imagine coming to HOGS how it turned out. You're going to see that video in a week. And Ryan is here. He traveled to Indiana. He's going to Ohio to do some golfing. And he wanted to know if he could swing by the Hogs hangar. I said absolutely. And earlier, Ryan was telling me his story about where he got. And I already knew the story from. I flew with Ryan in Florida at Straight Up Aviation this past winter. And I had a great time flying with Ryan and everybody else at Straight Up Aviation. That's where I did my R44 flight review with Gavin. And I want to have Ryan share with you how he got to where he's at because he's in a really good place getting ready to work on his. Oh, no, he's getting ready to take his commercial check ride down in Florida. And because he's trained with Straight up, he's in the family down there, he's going to be able to start working as a commercial pilot, which is his dream. So if you want, let's have you sign the Hogs Wall of Fame first. So Heather pulled his picture down. He's gonna sign it. It's gonna go back up on the wall. And again, Ryan's in a good place. And I said, you know, there's lots of people out there, men or women, that would love to be sitting where he's at right now, not meaning at the Hog's hangar, which is a cool place to be because we're badasses, but you know, ultimately want him to share a little bit about of his journey, what he told me earlier because he's in a good place. And I flew with Ryan in Florida and I was super impressed. We flew to another airport. Gloria was with me. She rode in the back. My daughter Gloria went over, had a nice lunch. Pretty sure Ryan even bought. I don't know, maybe I bought. I can't remember.

You bought?

Okay, I bought.

Thanks again.

Hey, I Even bought. I even bought lunch, but. And we had a great flight. And I told him that day, I'm like, ryan, your mannerisms in the helicopter are phenomenal. He was very slow, smooth, methodical. Everything that we teach, he did it. And I was super impressed with him. And I told him, man, you are going to have. You're going to have a great career and you're going to have no problem on your checkride. And of course, he's nervous like everybody. And I told him to calm down. You got hogs behind you, and you've been trained by Gavin, and you're in a good place in a good aircraft. I've flown the R44 down there. Wonderful aircraft, like the one we have here in case you want to come fly with us with the final approach course. Yeah, there you go. So we're going to crank this video out here real shortly. So I wasn't going to talk long, but that's me, right? So, Ryan, share with our viewers, because, you know, that's a YouTube channel and there's plenty of people out there, right, going for their dream. Everybody has their story. Share with us what you want to share about how you got to where you're at.

Like he was telling you. I basically, I started fixed wing, and I was always more passionate about flying helicopters. And I had a house I owned at the time, and I was kind of, you know, I didn't have all the money I needed to pursue my dreams and fly helicopters, so I owned it with my family and my parents. And she called me one day and said, give me a call when you have a chance to talk, because I think I got a deal you might enjoy. And, like. And I said, okay. So I called her and she said, why don't we sell the house up north where you're at and you can move back to Florida and fly your helicopters down here all you want and pursue your dream. And that's exactly what I did. So I think if you have the passion to do what you love and what you enjoy, you'll be very successful at it as long as you have the support that, you know, know, most people can hope for, dream of. You know, it's always nice to have that. But basically, all I can really say is never give up on your dreams. Always strive and push forward and keep going. Because if you have the passion that I had for it and still have, you'll. You'll get where you want to be. So, long story short, that's basically all I can say. Part of my story, I Mean, you know, like he, like Kenny said, everybody has their own story and just keep pushing forward and go for your dreams.

Very nice. Well said, Ryan. I'm going to reiterate again. He's. He's in such a good place and he's going to go past that commercial. Typical. He's had a couple of them scheduled and because of weather, they didn't happen normal. You know, you're lucky if your first time you're scheduled, you go, the paperwork's right. You're. You do the oral and you do the flight and everything goes great. It happens. But a lot of times they get. There's hiccups. Could be the weather, could be maintenance, could be a problem, the oral, could be a problem the flight. But he's gonna do great and I'm so impressed with him. You're gonna do great, man.

I appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, it's. It can be nerve wracking checkrides and stuff like that, but just got to get through it. Like, I've had all my guys in Fort Myers have a very good support family down there. You know, if Gavin sees this. Hi, Gavin. Terry.

He'll see it. He watches.

They do watch it. Everybody straight up. Hi. I'm just saying hi. Very good support family I have down there. And we're almost like our own little helicopter family. Like what Hogs is up here and they've always been through, help me out anytime I needed it through thick and thin and always have been there for me. So like Kenny says, I know I'll be successful. Just gotta keep working at it and keep pecking away so it'll come. And like anybody else, like I said, if the dream's there and you wanna do it, you'll do it.

So. Yep. One of my last free plugs of my career. Straight up aviation. And what city is it again?

Fort Myers.

Fort Myers. Yep. Because from. Because we're doing branding deals now. So last freebie, Gavin, and straight up aviation. Gavin's remained a friend. I did my flight review with him, but then flew with everybody down there. I flew Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday with HOGS members and had a great time.

Yeah, I remember he had you fly with each of us. Every pilot we have there, he had you fly with just so you could meet everybody that was there and, you know, see how they fly and how they handle everything. So it was a good, great time. Great time. And I'm glad to be here now. I'm glad I could actually come in and, and see the Hogs hangar And meet Heather for the first time and see the helicopter in the car. Good stuff. Very good stuff. So glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

June 16th. It's on Dylan, the guy holding the camera for this big video reveal. We're going to talk about the fac final approach course. Guess what? We had a cancellation in july. We got one open and we're paying a $500 referral for anybody that sends us a final approach customer. We just put that out yesterday. And so get ready for the big event June 16th because we've got another FAC next week. Guess what? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Checkride. Another one here. So that's going to be two completed at the end of next week because I'm sure it's going to go well. He's going to pass. And on Friday, we're going to reveal the first fac. Some great footage behind the scenes when Todd arrived. Getting ready to go some of the flying. Our camera person in the back seat, Lindsey, didn't know we were going to do an auto and went face. You'll see it in the camera. She's like, she wasn't prepared for 1, 2, 3 on her auto rotation. And it's going to be fun. It's going to be cool. So I shouldn't point the camera? They say never point at the camera. Why do I do that? What else I need to tell them? Tune in June 16th for the Big event. We're going to do something live. We're going to try to do something live that day. Do some giveaways, and there's a whole bunch of cool stuff coming. Should I tell them about the our next hoodie and t shirt? Okay, we got something new. Cool, cool. That's arriving Wednesday.

Keep that a surprise.

Yep, we'll keep that a surprise. You get to see them on Friday. We're working on something. You're going to want them.

Still got to make me some hogs. Flight gloves.

Oh, yeah, Flight gloves. Okay. Tell Heather what you want.

Well, I, I. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but when. When Kenny and I flew together, I usually will. I have a pair of gloves I wear when I fly usually because, you know, your hands, especially in florida, they get sweaty. You want to maintain that good grip. And he was flying with me, and I said something about, why don't we make a pair of hogs gloves? And he went like this at me, like you just had an idea. And, you know, you fly up north. It helps keep your hands warm, too. You know, everybody might not buy him but it's something. And I told if it had the logo on it, that would be pretty neat. So, okay, something to think about along with the other attire, T shirts and sweaters and stuff like that.

So we got a whole slew of stuff coming and should I say that we've got a new logo being designed?

I think you just.

I just blew it.

Heck, you could probably make a pair of fingerless and full finger for different weather, climates and stuff.

That's a good idea. We have a whole list of products coming out, a whole bunch of stuff and a new logo might be. There might be that involved. That might be good on a ball cap, it might be good on a T shirt, it might be good on your flight suit over here. It might be good on your flight jacket. It's gonna be cool on a coffee cup, you know, blah, blah, blah. So tell us, just. I have never wore gloves in a helicopter ever in my life. So with that being said, because I have no experience with it, what kind of a, what kind of a glove would we want to find to put the hogs logo on? Is it a special kind of.

I'd say, I'd say, I'd say the gloves I have, they're pair of leathers, but it's. They're kind of like motorcycle gloves, in my opinion. But okay. I like flying with them. You know, you maintain good grip and stuff. But one thing that's kind of a downfall is, you know, maneuvering the. The instruments and stuff. Sometimes with the dexterity of the fingers, it's kind of hard. That's why I said maybe a pair of fingerless and fingers. So, you know, depending on what people want, you could get maybe both or one of each. Everybody's gonna have their preference, you know, so some people like to wear them. Some people like the feel of just their bare hands. You know, it's just a, just a thought. So.

So do they make something actually called flight gloves?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so we can just get online.

Oh, yeah. If you type, if you type in nomex flight gloves, yeah, they'll bring.

No Max flight gloves.

They'll bring in. They'll show you the long ones that come up to here. But I thought that was kind of overkill because I would always get them cut down short. So they were just at my wrist. But yeah, you could, technically you. You could. You could just buy a black pair and put the logo on there if you wanted to. Like, you know, that would work. If you had somebody that did that.

For you, that's your mission Heather, I love it. Is to start researchers with flight gloves. Yeah. So I guess let's shake Ryan's hand. He's going to take off here shortly. He's got some stuff to go do. We're glad you come by.

Thanks. Appreciate it.

So the experience you're going to hear about coming up June 16th. You're going to see Todd the whole fun of the final approach course, and you're going to hear about it and I'm going to release it now. Because if you're at this video, nobody stays at the end of the video. Check out this is. This is. This is the flight training I've always wanted for my whole entire career. I have. Well, I never even knew the Hogs Wall of Fame. Right. But we got the Hogs Wall of Fame right here. We set up the two couches for when Todd was here. We sat down, we documented all the paperwork, the 8710 going through and make sure we had every single piece of everything you need for a checkride was done before we showed up. And then we got a quality aircraft over here. The R44 is just out of refurbishment. Complete overhaul picked it up. Sevier county choppers. It's got 27 hours on it. Had six hours when we picked it up. So I've got 20 hours on it. I love this aircraft. Flies nice, runs. Nice. We have mechanics stopping by once a week for what I'll call progressive maintenance. Come in and take a look. They caught something two weeks ago. None of us caught in pre flight. And I had two mechanics come by. The first mechanic didn't catch it. Second mechanic just catches something that none of nobody else had caught. Didn't cost me much money. But if it wouldn't have been caught, it would have cost me a whole lot of money when that part. When that thing came apart. So we got the aircraft, we got the prep area. Right over here is the log book to fill out as soon as you get done flying. We got our oil, we got our paper towels, we got our roll. Roll around scaffolding. Everything is right here. It is right here. And this is what Todd loved being here. Right. And then the fuel truck. These guys dispatch like ems. I can. I could call them right now. Hey, can I get some 100 load at Hangar 25? And by the time I get the helicopter outside, they're there. I mean, they're like this. And then boom, we're in the pattern. There's no fly into another airport. Oh, there's no dealing with the tower. We have towers. We can go to a local airport for that kind of work if we need to, but for smacking out a check, right, and getting done because you're somewhere and you can't line up an examiner. You can't line up an aircraft. Aircraft keeps breaking. Aircraft. Aircraft keeps breaking. They're short instructors. There's all this big, long list of problems that people are facing trying to get a checkride done. I have an examiner I've been working with for 22 years. We have a flawless setup. You get your requirements done, we zoom before you get here. We make sure all your shit's ready to go, and we go take a check, ride, get you done, send you home. So reach out to heather 574-767-1797 or go to helicopterground.com and there are going to be some major changes you're going to see in the next 30 days. Big ones. Big, big, big changes. Subscribe to the channel, click the bell, make a comment below, and if you dislike the video, make sure you dislike it twice. That's all I got. Peace out.

Peace out.

Peace out. Heather, throw yours in there, too. She's. Sa.