Helicopter Online Ground School, LLC 2020

Hey everybody, it's Kenny with Helicopter Only Ground school and here is Brian Rutledge. Say hi, Brian.

Hello everybody. This is Brian.

We just want to do a quick video, let you know we're still here. We've been working behind the scenes for the last couple weeks. That's why we haven't seen a lot of premiere videos or live videos. And we're gonna have some details on that coming up soon, but can't tell anything yet. But we've been working on something behind the scenes that many members are gonna. I can't say too much, but there's gonna be.

Don't give it away.

I can't give it away yet, but it's gonna be cool. But that's why you haven't seen much of us. So we just wanted to do a video, let you know we're still here. I'm gonna put the number up. 574-767. 1797. Heather's still been working from home. We're waiting to hear from our Indiana governor on May 1st. What's going to happen with Indiana. So Heather is still working at home handling the phone lines seven days a week. And we have a special we're going to run till March, I'm sorry, May 15th. 33% off right now off of any private commercial, CFI or instrument monthly memberships off the first month. And also 33% off the big professional pilot package that's available for anyone right now through May 15th. So now that Brian has this is in his sixth week of working with Helicopter Land Ground School. And I said, hey Brian, let's do a video real quick. And he says okay. And he goes, you know, I want to, I can talk about how much really goes on behind the scenes. And I, I said, you know, we wanted to let Brian give him this past six weeks to really get. Even though he's familiar with helicopter land ground school and has been for seven years, now that he's digging in full time, going from a part time status, you know, working a full time job now full time, five days a week, helicopter lane ground school. He's been talking to members. Anybody that signs up, you get a half an hour consultation with Brian. Heather will hook you up with that. Or you can email brian direct@brianhelicopterground.com that works too. But he's been talking to many, many, many of you out there. And so now that he's had six weeks full time, I don't know, Brian, it's really helped you get that behind the scenes picture of what really goes on? What do you think now in your week number six, full time with helicopter on ground school.

Oh my goodness, there is so much involved. I had no idea. Now granted, like you said, I was doing this part time because I met you back in 2013 when I was working on my CFI and I went online and I found helicopter online grounds for wonder what this is all about. And you had a phone number available and I called you and I'll never forget it. I was standing out in the garage and it was middle of summer and we talked and we talked and we talked and by the end of the conversation I'm like, I gotta purchase this. So I purchased it. Back then, you know, the course content was a lot smaller than it is now. Oh yeah, but it was plenty, plenty. I got through my flight instructor rating in no time. You helped me out a ton. And ever since then we just kept, you know, kept in contact and I was that guy like you've always said in some of the other videos, the guy on the outside looking in, right. And giving suggestions and tips and pointers and things that I saw as if I was a student watching particular things that you were doing online. Fast forward. We did all those videos with the pre flights and the R22 up in Auburn with Dave Redmond and a couple of the other guys. And that was a lot of fun to do. And I was, I was hooked at that point. I thought, man, this is something I'd like to do after I retire. And here we are seven years later. I finally retired and he offered me a job to come in. I had no idea initially until probably the end of that first week. I realized then there's a lot that goes on and it's fun for me. I enjoy the heck out of it. Even though I retired on a Friday and started to work with you on the following Monday, I really didn't take any time off. But it's been fun because I really enjoy instructing and by doing what I've done so far in the last six weeks with putting together a lot of the downloads that are currently in the, in the private pilot section, that's been a lot of fun. What we're working on now is something that I know you haven't put out there yet. There's a lot more coming and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. And one of the things I'll tell you, I really enjoy the the one on one conversations that I've had with the members, the new members that have taken advantage of a Consultation phone call. I know we say 30 minutes, but I don't think I've finished one in 30 minutes yet. I think just about all of them have been 45 minutes to an hour. I know there was one particular gentleman out of Alaska. He was just a great guy. I don't remember his name off top of my head, but getting ready for a check ride, he had so many questions and we talked. Next thing I knew it was an hour and 20 minutes we had been talking. It was fine because I could tell he really, he, he wanted to talk and he had a lot of questions and I was providing the answers that he was looking for. So it made it all, it made it so worth it. So anyways, you know, there is a lot that goes on with emails and phone calls and trying to create content for what we're trying to do, but hands down, I'm having a lot of fun.

Well, it's, it's been nice having you to do that because it's not only helping you learn ground school and learn about the members needs, but it's just, it's helping take helicopter line ground school to the next level. It truly is. It's given that Hugs customer services now we've always thought it was good and we did the best we could but now having you there, it's just added another level to it. And so it's not only benefiting you and benefiting me and benefiting Hugs, it's benefiting the members because they're getting that one on one interaction. And you know, the thing that's popping my mind is how many people say hey can you do this? And hey, can you build that? And you can see now how you get inundated and it's like you have to pick, we have to pick and choose what is the most important right now. And you know, we'll be back on private pilot here soon. And it's funny on a personal note, not a personal note. Remember a few years ago when you said God, quit building new content because all we were building new courses and adding and then we backed off for a while and so let's focus on the content we have and then here we are off building something else new. But we'll have it wrapped up here pretty quick and it's going to be worth it. It'll be something that maybe some past customers that aren't currently using hogs will probably want to come back and grab and I'll shut up about that. What else you want to say about grout school?

You know, I I'm just gonna say, you know, when we, we're talking about, you know, quit creating things and, and, you know, fine tune what, what was currently there. That's the guy from the outside looking in right now. When you're the guy on the inside that sees all that really still needs to be done. And I'll tell you, now that I'm doing this full time, I have more time going through how much or how many videos there really are.

Yeah.

It's how much content is in there and it is mind blowing how much stuff is there. And I look at it and I go, it's all excellent content, great stuff. But staying up on top of it now.

Yeah.

I see why there's no way one person by themselves could put together first, come up with an idea, put together, say, a PowerPoint, and then have the equipment handy to shoot the video, edit the video, upload the video.

Yeah.

Contact the customers, all the emails, all the phone calls. There's not enough time in a day.

Exactly.

There's just not. And so now I have found why prioritizing those things that need to be done immediately compared to those things that can be done maybe in the future.

Yep.

And knowing what those things are from an instructor standpoint, looking at course content and understanding this needs to be fixed right now. Let's fix it. And we fix it and we move on. Yeah. So I had no idea there was as much as there is. Sometimes I'm having fun.

Sometimes our fixes can be really, really quick.

Yes.

And other times, some things are just. It's almost, it's easier to say, well, we're going to redis reshoot that video versus trying to repair something. I think we've had a lot more requests for new additions and updates, probably because of the pandemic. And we've had so many members that have been getting in and working on getting on that written test or preparing for that oil that they know is coming when they get back to flying. And so we love the feedback. I just wanted to reiterate to people that, you know, we've had a lot of requests for new stuff and individually I answer those emails and just say, look, that's not available right now. But what I do say is I've been using the same company for eight years and this company is phenomenal and they're always adding new things. So when you ask us for something and we say we don't have it right now, but it's probably coming, many of the things that you ask about, they've already mentioned that are in the works. So there's always going to be new additions, there's always going to be updates, there's always going to be new features that are going to come. So even though we can't provide a certain feature right now, you know, well, the site we have is pretty darn awesome and it's going to continue over time. And you've seen it, Brian, the eight years of just how they all sudden they give us something new and you go, wow, we didn't even know that was coming. So the courses are what they are right now and they're darn good. And we've got the Hogs Wall of fame over there that I guess I don't need to show it today because I've showed it so many times in the past. I'm working from the backside today of, you know, but that's okay, right? Everybody's doing these videos from home, sitting.

At my kitchen counter.

So let's reiterate that not only are you talking to brand new members, you're also, you said, hey, you know what, I'll go ahead and talk to existing members too. If they've got a problem they're trying to, you know, usually you can do you find. Let me ask you this. I find it usually when somebody's having a problem, it doesn't take long once you talk to them just a little bit. Usually it's a pretty quick answer on how they need to get going in the right direction because a person gets overwhelmed. And then when someone from the outside like you or I looks at their situation and go, you know what? Here's what you need to do. And 99% of the time, boy, it sure seems like it works. And they come back and go, wow, that was amazing. Thanks for giving me that little insight. Because it's hard for people sometimes in their own environment. Maybe they're chicken to ask their instructor, or maybe they're afraid to speak out to the flight school because they feel like they're not, they don't know enough. And then you give them a little insight and go, hey, well, here's what you should probably do, you know, whatever.

The case, here's my take too. If there's students out there that have questions and you have an instructor, ask your instructor. If you don't ask, you never know if they have the answer. But here's the caveat to that. A good instructor, if he does not or she does not have the answer, they will tell you, I don't know the answer to your question, but I will find out for you. Sign of a good instructor, 100%. A very good sign of a quality and a good instructor. And I tell people all the time. I've had some crazy questions, you know, even from my professional life, working, you know, know, in law enforcement. Questions would come up from guys that I've known for years in our unit. I didn't know the answer to the question. I told him, I don't know everything. I don't pretend to know everything, but I tell them I will find out, and I will spend my time finding the answer to that question. If that means I got to call a physdo, I got to call a dpe, I got to call somebody, I will do the legwork, get the information, and bring it back. Now, with that being said, what students also need to realize, there are times where an instructor will tell you, okay, that's something you should know, because I know we've covered it. You need to dig into your resources and find the answer, and that will help you out a lot as well. So there's two sides of that.

Absolutely. Awesome. Well, hey, I know you got some stuff you want to do, so we'll try to wrap this up here. Congratulations on six weeks full time. Happy you're here, man. We've been talking about it for so long, you know, Clear back when you made those R22 videos.

Clear.

Back in 2015. I'll make this known to people. Brian didn't charge me a penny for doing all that. And he set that up through the flight school because they donated the helicopter time and the instructor time because they all wanted to be part of the videos for hogs. That was five years ago. And you just said, well, just remember me, because someday I'm gonna retire and you can take care of me then. And here we are, you know, initial idea, seven years ago, five years ago, when you're going, well, I'm going to retire one of these days. Five years later, here we are. So, Brian, you have helped us take helicopter online ground school to the next level. Our goal. Well, when Brian asked me, let's say, three or four months ago, when he got close to going to actually pulling the plug and retiring, he's like, what do you want to do, Kenny? What's the number one thing that you want to do and you want me to help you with? And I answered like that. I said, a number one customer service. That's. I want. Your priority when you start is to help us take good customer service and make it even better. That is the priority. So you are members, future members. You are our priority. And that has been the number one goal. And then now you've got a whole long list of other things underneath that, making customer service number one. There's a whole long list of other things that we're working on, too. But remember 574-767. I'll put the number up 1797. Heather's working from home and managing that number seven days a week. She checks it a couple times a day. That's the deal. I'm guessing the governor's going to extend our stay at home price probably two more weeks, but he's not going to say till May 1st, so we don't know yet. I'm gathering the next two weeks, Heather will probably still be at home taking care of the phone from there, books and shirts. There's a delay on shipping because Heather's been working at home. And I don't even want to send anybody the post office until, you know, things kind of start getting cleared up, so. And professional pilot, 33% off on. All you need is the code 33 or those monthly options for private commercial CFI instrument use. The code 3. 3 in the coupon box. Get 33% off because I love the number three.

You can't beat it.

Can't beat them. It's already cheap. You have always said your training is cheap. That $49 for private pilot is freaking cheap.

Not cheap, inexpensive.

It's inexpensive. You're right. It's not cheap because it's a heck of a lot of trailing training for 49 bucks a month, even at the base price.

If only. If only the people knew how much is coming.

Oh, they're gonna love it. They already. You already know. You've seen a lot of the comments, how they. They like a lot of. Of what's been done so far, and I know they're going to keep digging it as we keep putting out new stuff and. And, yeah.

So.

Well, let's wrap this up. I know you can go do what you got to do. And about supper time for me, I'm gonna add this up and get this up tonight, so. All right, everybody, subscribe to the channel and click the bell so you'll be notified when we put out new videos, let you know what's up and what's new and what's coming, and we'll see you all in the next video.