Kenny Keller advises pilots building hours between private and commercial certificates to obtain an instrument rating as the top strategy — it lets you log PIC time with an instructor while gaining instrument training that can be lifesaving and valuable for future jobs. He also mentions alternative hour-building opportunities (ferry flights, media/news flights, pipeline/pilot-ride arrangements used historically), shares personal anecdotes (waiting until ~800 hours to pursue instrument training, built ~40 hours via pipeline), and promotes HOGS resources: a free PDF 'Private Pilot 101' (privateblueprint.com), the askhogs.com Q&A clone, updated R22/R44 course material, and Hogsmember support (574-767-1797).
Questions this video answers
January 7, 2025.
Obtain an instrument rating.
askhogs.com.
privateblueprint.com (signup with name and email).
574-767-1797.
Chapters
Is there another question?
Nick Good wants to know what is the best way to build hours between private and commercial certification?
Get your instrument rating. The best, smartest thing you can do between private and commercial is go get that instrument rating. Even if you're not even sure if you want the rating, even if you're not going the pro route. The beauty is while you're building time for your commercial, you're logging pic with an instructor. With that, as you're building pic time, you're learning instrument training, which is something that can save your life. Instrument training absolutely could save your life. You might need it in your career if you're going to apply for jobs. So that would be the number one best way you're building time anyway. Yes, it's extra money for an instructor and it's extra money for another checkride, but if you're going to be building that time to get to commercial, hands down, do that instrument training then. And I can say that firsthand because I did all my ratings. I did private commercial CFI, wait till I got about 800 hours flying. And then I got to go back and get my instrument training. So then I got to start studying again. I kind of got to learn how to study. And it was a real pain in the ass going back and doing it later. I wish I would have done it in between private and commercial then. Another good way is you got to research. You can research for ferry flights, which they're kind of hard to come by, but you can also reach search. There are things that happen, like, say, like out in California, they'll have a news station where they'll let you go along, fly the helicopter. There's an instructor that's flying and you can pay a reduced rate to go along and actually get to be pic while the instructor's talking on the radio or doing whatever. So there are some ways like that, but you have to research them out. I can't tell you where exactly. I know some people have done that way back, but that's been a long time ago. And then I. The flight school I went to, they had a pipeline that we could go along on for like 75 bucks an hour R22 time. And that has. That school's no longer there. But that was another one of the ways I built about 40 hours for my commercial was going along on a pipeline, instructors watching the pipeline. I'm flying and I'm just, you know, there's turn right, turn left, and just fly. So you have to research those opportunities out. But that's the Best ways I can think of to start trying to build that time. And our clone is located@askhogs.com you can go below and click on the link to go check it out. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can ask training related questions. Flight and ground. 14 years of my contents loaded in this thing. Blogs, podcasts, videos, paid content, free content. There's over 6 million words piped into my clone. It's amazing. Go down below ask hogs.com the clone is free to everyone. And the clone is also inside of our hog site on every video, every page. So you can be in viewing videos. And you can always ask the clone a question while you're at it so you can get an immediate answer first. Right here is free free PDF private pilot 101 helicopter training blueprint. That's why we created this and let me cover what's in the first chapter. Since you ask and you're at the beginning. That's why we created this. The first chapter are questions that we've. We took like the top 10 questions that we get all the time. Like is learning how to fly a helicopter difficult? How long will it take to become a private pilot? How much will it cost to become a private pilot? What is the best approach to selecting a flight school? What are the key differences between helicopters and fixed wing aircraft? How many tests will I have to take? How many hours for solo on the license? Kenny's recommended training supplies so this is absolutely 100% free. You can go down below, there's a link down below. Or you can type in your browser privateblueprint.com and you can download immediately after you sign up. You'll sign up, enter your name and email and the next page will show you. Download your book here. That's where you should start because again it's free. Or subscribe to the YouTube channel. Subscribe the channel. You'll get notification when the new video comes out for either the live or the premiere, whichever way we do it. And then we want to also bring up. We are updating, starting to update our R22 specific course behind us. Course behind us course using the helicopter behind us. Lindsay's in charge of getting in there and updating some images. In the R22 site section of Hogs we have R22 specific section and R44 specific section that come with any of our memberships, so you don't have to buy that. Specifically we use private pilot for example monthly membership. It has both the R22 and R44 sections in there. And since we have an R22 available to us and an R44 available to us, we thought, why not get the content updated in those courses with some fresh videos, brushed images. We got two aircraft and a lot of people going, well, I want to. Well, I'm gonna. Well, after Christmas. Well, that's when everybody's gonna start wanting those times. So to speed the process along, we need to get some workbook for these helicopters. Both of them are sitting, currently not flying, and they're both ready to go. So reach out to Hogsmember support 574-767. 1797. If you'd like to get on the schedule for some training, we specialize in checkrides, finish the people up. But we can also do, you know, S4 checkouts. Again, you can come in for one day, two days, whatever you need, or you need a block of time. We'd even be willing to work your little deal this time of the year to get some time on these aircraft. So again, reach out to Hogsmember support 574-767-1797.
When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the hogs no go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.
