Intense Helicopter Flight Induces Worst Hangover Headache

Absolute worst headache of my life. Out of ground effect, hover class Bravo airspace, going live with the news, talking to two other helicopters also in the Class Bravo. We're off the end of the Runway. There was some kind of a construction project or something. So there's three news helicopters. So we're talking to each other, we're talking to class Bravo tower, we're talking to our news stations. And I was doing this with a hangover and it created the worst, absolute worst headache of my life. This was about 2003. And I can assure you that I have never made this mistake again. It was truly the worst headache of my life. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about that and just we'll talk about the after effects. Like maybe you had enough hours, maybe you had eight hours, but you're still feeling those lingering effects of the night before. This is a good day to tell the story. I'm going to grab this camera and show you something cool over here. This is hanging in my hangar. And this was for my dad, who was a schoolteacher for 40 years in the hometown I grew up in. They named the baseball field after him. And when they decided to update these signs, they let me have one and the other went into hometown Museum. So I was, I revisited the hometown bar where I used to sit with my dad and enjoy some big draft beers. And that's why I've decided this is a great day to share this story. Right. This past summer, we did a bunch of check rides and I had two guys I was preparing, and when I said, you know, talked about alcohol rules, they're like, well, it doesn't apply to me because I don't drink. I'm like, well, that's fine, you don't drink, but the examiner's still going to ask you about blood alcohol content and drinking the night before and how many hours you need before flying and blood alcohol content and all that. So those questions are still relevant whether you are a drinker or not. So I have no problem saying last night, my first time back to the old local pub in probably six or seven years, I used to, you know, meet my dad there and at the end of his life sit there and enjoy beers together. They, even after he passed away, they even took his mug and turned it upside down and engraved it and put it up on the shelf. So he was very well liked in the community and he knew everybody because he was a school teacher. Not going to bore you if you want to know more about that. I put it in the Beginning of my book. This is a part of the reason that inspired me to fly helicopters was wanting to do something cool like my dad did, right? I was very impressed with my dad and, and I wanted to try to live up to his name. Last night we go to the local pub and a friend of mine picks me up. Friend agrees to drive. I don't have to worry about driving home. Go over and, you know, it's kind of emotional. It was cool revisiting the place I used to hang out with my dad in the end of his life. And so, you know, I get in there, you want a bottle or a draft? I'm like, ah, give me a draft. And man, those things were tasting good. Everything's good, right? I have a ride home, a safe ride home, sober driver, so no problem, go have a great time. It was cool. Revisiting the place, spending time with friends, great night, went home, you know, got eight or nine hours of sleep, but got up today feeling a little bit of groggy, right? Because I stayed out late last night. Good news is, do I have to fly today? Nope. What I think about flying today? Nope. I don't drink the night before when I know that I'm going to have to fly, right? Like business during the week, it's business. I don't normally drink. It's just like I got better things to do, right? I want to get up in the morning, feel good. But weekends, you know, I like to go out, enjoy a live band and enjoy a big draft beer and. And luckily at this point in my career, I can do what I need to do, right? I can make those decisions very easily. Oh, I got a fly tomorrow, I'm not going to drink. And we recently had a HOGS member here who said, you know, if I drink, I don't fly the next day. And I'm like, you know what, that's a great rule, right? It's a great rule. We're not talking. You just have a beer with supper that I don't think is going to bother you the next day. Flying. We're talking about when you're going to consume more than that. So back to this story and why I've never done this again. Again. I mentioned it was around 2003 and you know, I'm 20 years younger then, right? And new and kind of cocky, right? And when we're younger, we think we're invincible. And where I was working, there was a group of helicopter pilots that were notorious to go out in the evenings and have a good time. And I'M sure I followed the eight hour rule, but again, we had plenty to drink that night. So I'm under the impression I can fly that day and I'm going to be fine. So I might have felt a little bit of the lingering effects, but I'm thinking, you know, it'll be fine once I was in this position. And again, I'll repeat it, what I opened up with, we're in class Bravo airspace, we have to hold an out of ground effect hover. We know that we want to go live for the news. I believe this was a noon flight, right. So we're going to be hovering out of ground effect. And as I stated, so you're trying to maintain the aircraft, number one, keep the, keep the aircraft stabilize hover. That in itself is a job to try to stay pointed into the wind, not getting slang with power. Then you've got two other news helicopters and we were all good about talking to each other, but again, you have to keep track of where the other guys are at. We're talking to the tower for class Bravo. They know we're there. Obviously we're authorized to be there. So here we are doing all that talking to each other, maintaining out of ground effect hover, talking to our new stations on another frequency frequency. So as you can imagine, there's a lot going on in the cockpit as you're holding out of ground effect hover and you're poking between radios, whether it's the new station, the other helicopters, Class Bravo, and you have traffic taking off and landing, going in and out of the airport. It created the stress of that flight. Again, I was pretty new. I was, you know, we'll say six or 800 hours, I don't know, somewhere in that, in that vicinity. And I thought that I could do this. The pressure of all those things together gave me this intense freaking headache. And I remember it being like, you know, at the front of my head, right? And I vowed to never, ever, ever make that mistake again. And I, and I can promise you that I haven't because I learned my lesson, was younger, you know, thinking I'm invincible. We can go up my buddies. I got my eight hours, I'll be fine. So that's what I kind of want to make this video about today. Because again, I went out last night, had a great time, got home delivered, home safe. I can jump in the car and come out to the airport, click on the camera and make a video and hit the store on the way home, fix supper and lounge on the couch the rest of the Evening. So nothing, you know, that I have to do today. Those lingering effects again, let's talk about, I'm not saying you're going to go out and fly, you know, half drunk, hopefully nobody, none of you ever, ever do that. I'm gearing this towards you've got your eight hours or you got nine or 10 hours. So you're going, oh, I'm legal, right? I've had eight hours since my last drink. I only had, you know, six beers or whatever. And you've done the math and you think you should be fine. Those lingering effects the next day I believe affect you, right? You're probably going to be more tired than normal. You're not going to be quite as alert as normal. You are just not going to have your best day. You're not going to make the best decisions. You're going to be more prone to make mistakes. And I was thinking about this before driving in today. It's like, you know, we just did the, the three strikes and you're out policy we talked about the other day, which I think is phenomenal and we've had great feedback on that video that Mike Patey that I, that I shared with you. People are sending me messages and telling me stories. How much everybody loves that basic common everyday pilot rule of three strikes and you're out. Here's one where I think this is one strike and you're out. I don't think you need any other. You drank the night before, you got some lingering effects. And again, I'm not talking about a beer with dinner. I'm talking you've been out with your friends, enjoying an evening and having a good time. If you have the lingering effects, hands down, the smartest thing to do is just stay on the ground and don't go do that flight. And again, I promise you I've been pretty religious about the, the rules on alcohol but for me it's more about more. It's more than just the rules. It's like, am I going to feel my best? So, so I'm with this, the hogs member that here was here recently and said, you know what, if I drink the night before the next day I'm not flying at all. And that's the way I operate now. And again I can, I'm lucky because I'm self employed, I can make my schedule work where I got flying to do. I have important things to do. That's one thing. Weekend comes around, I don't like to work weekends anymore. You know, in my life I've worked Police department, fire department, had a towing service, flew helicopter, ems. A lot of weekends working in my life at this point, I want to go fun, go have fun on the weekends. I don't want to worry about work and having a lot to do. So we'll wrap that up with this one. I just thought it was a good day to share this story. We have more, more topics that we've listed, but I'm just kind of going with the flow and each day going, what's going on around me that kind of ties in with one of these things I've done in the past that weren't the smartest ideas. Just want to tell you we love the feedback. I have people emailing me and sending me messages and even a few phone calls to people sharing stories of things that they've seen and that they want to talk about, but they're kind of scared to talk about. And in turn I'm encouraging them like right, like, you know, tell these stories, share them. If there's something that you, you know in your heart or your gut you need to speak out about, get the guts to talk about them. Right. And I already know we're affecting people, right. I know we're, we're making and it's, you know, a little tiny, small impact. But when people email you or call you and say, hey, I hit the no go button because of your videos and I decided not to go because of weather or they found something on a pre flight or where they kind of thought well I could, I could probably get away with this. And then they go, you know, I thought about it and because you're preaching it all the time, I decided to stay on the ground. We recently had a young man who shared a video on Facebook of a crappy weather on his solo and he said, my online instructor says live the fly. Another day I saw the bad weather and I turned around and I went back and I landed. That's a cool feeling to know that we do make a difference. So free PDFs down below this one. My dad's a big part of why I got into what I do today. My mom and dad both and I talk a little bit about that in the beginning of this book. Amazon number one bestseller. Free PDF below. And we'll also ship this to you for free. Just shipping handling in the U.S. top 10 checkride tips mentioned that in the video yesterday. Free PDF down below. We'll also send this to you in the in the United States for just shipping and handling and then helicopter maneuver guide. Put this down below as well. Great little downloadable PDF. It follows the Helicopter Flying Handbook. So this is a maneuver guide to just kind of help you go through, refresh your memory on maneuvers. And you could always download it as a PDF, print it off if you like. But Helicopter Maneuver Guide. So put all those down links below along with links for our courses and keep the good feedback coming and you know we got another 20 some days of these videos. Any video ideas, put them down below and I can gear it towards something we have upcoming that will be helpful. Thanks for tuning in. Click that subscribe button and click that bell so you'll be notified of tomorrow's video. Peace out. 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.com.