"Is it normal to be NERVOUS when SOLO flying?"

Off the cuff video today. Email from a member, a Hogs member. And I like this question a lot. I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Line Ground School, and this is one that in 12 years of making videos and over a thousand videos on YouTube, I'm sure this has come up in conversations, but I've never titled a video specifically like this. His question was, in your opinion, is it normal to be nervous when solo flying? And the answer is yes. I think personally it's very common. I'm sure there's some people out there that solo didn't bother them and that's great. Me, for example, I didn't want to do it. I can remember back in the day my instructor pushing me and he's like, no, dang it, you're ready. Do it. Get out. Or he gets out and he goes, go. Do. Did get easier with time. So my gut feeling is a certain amount of being nervous is normal. Okay. And I compare it to the checkride. Many people are really nervous on their checkride and end up doing really well from the stress. Believe it or not, you know, the flying a few days before the checkride goes downhill and they feel like they can't remember anything. But then the day of the test, they normally do better than what they expect. That's the normal. What I see. And I think this is the same thing. It's normal to be nervous. And that certain amount of stress can actually be a good thing to help you in the aircraft when you're soloing. Now, of course, there's a flip side of that. If you're so nervous that you can't even see straight and you can't think about an emergency, okay, then you probably want to do some more training. But specifically, he made the comment, the pickup, set downs, even hovering didn't bother me. It's just the actual flying. I think sometimes if a caution warning light was to come on, would I know what to do? Okay, so here's the key. You should be studying those emergency procedures well enough that that's not going to be an issue. If you're going up and soloing and you're not 100% on the emergencies, you better hit the books a little harder before you solo again because you should know the emergencies. And it's a matter of sitting down, memorization, going through them over and over. You know, inside hogs. We have R22, R44 and estrogen specific, you know, training specifically on. We go right to the PoH and talk about the emergency procedures. You can use that to Listen to over and over again. You can read them out of the poh, but this is where you should nervous. Being nervous is okay, but you should know those emergency procedures well enough that you're not going to forget them. And then he said, or if I had to auto because of an engine failure, could I safely perform the maneuver? I can give you my take on that, how I feel, and other instructors I've talked to when we're prepping you for your private pilot. When you go solo, we don't expect you to be an expert at auto rotation. However, we need to make sure we do enough of those with you that you know exactly what to do. Collect them down, get your airspeed, look for your spot, turn toward the wind if necessary. We want to have you to a point where, yes, you can successfully perform the maneuver. It's not going to be super pretty. It doesn't have to be super pretty. Super pretty. The idea is that you have to be able to get it on the ground safely and be able to walk away. And if you had an engine failure, it is collective down. Get your airspeed, flare the thing above the ground and then level it and cushion the landing. Doesn't have to be pretty. So I like that he brought that in there because many times people aren't maybe super comfortable doing autos. But if you're trying to do a rating and you're trying to do it in 40 hours or 45 or 50 hours, there's a lot of things going on during that whole course of training to get ready for your checkride. So during that solo time, we don't expect you to be perfect at it. However, you should be fluid enough, and it's your instructor's job to make sure that you're going to be fluid enough that if you had an engine failure, you could get it on the ground. If you're not sure about that, any one individual should do a little more training with your instructor, because you should at least know, hey, I know it's not going to be probably purdy, but I know I can get the thing on the ground and end up walking away. He went on to add, basically to say, you know, is this something that will fade away with more solo time? Yes, the more time you spend in the aircraft and the more time you do it, it will go away. It's a neat. It's a neat topic because there are times. For example, I can remember the first time I soloed a Jet Ranger. I'd been flying for a while. I was a cfi, but the first time they turned me loose in the Jet Ranger to move it from point A to point B, I was nervous. I was a cfi. I'd been flying. But it's the first time they released me in the turbine aircraft. I was nervous on that day. So any pilot could be nervous at any time on any given situation. I worked with an EMS pilot who was the lead pilot at the base I was at, and he was a military pilot. And he told me that, you know, through his training throughout the military, he was never alone in the aircraft. I guess military does a little bit different, right? So the first time he ever flew in an aircraft by himself, when he was actually working for the EMS base and he had to move an aircraft from point A to point B for maintenance, he said he was nervous because he'd never been alone in an aircraft before. So we all come from different backgrounds. Anybody could be nervous at any given time. Being nervous is okay as long as it's not. You're not so nervous that you're just plain not going to be able to function. Okay. So again, everybody's going to be a little bit different. But I find it. I just find that an interesting topic, and I'm glad he wrote in because I thought. I've never really covered this as a specific topic for one video. So, bottom line, yes, it's okay to be nervous, but you also have to know those emergency procedures so that you're not going to forget them. That I will say. And then again, with the auto, you should have enough of those auto rotations under your belt. You might not be ready to show that to the examiner, but you don't have to be. You have to be good enough and confident enough that if that engine quits, you will be able to get that thing onto the ground back on with bow skids and unbuckle and open the door and get out and walk away. So if you have any doubt, ask for a little more time with your instructor on any of those procedures. Emergencies, autos. Just knowing that, you know, it's okay to be nervous and a certain amount of stress can actually be a good thing to help you. All right, summer sale ending Thursday, I believe. The 22nd, last day of summer. Damn. Hate to see it go 33% off until Thursday night at midnight. You know what? I'll put the links down below so you won't even need the code. You can go below this video. The links are there. Click on it. It takes you right to the checkout, and it'll show you the discounted price and you can sign up. 33% off now until Thursday night, September 22nd, last day of summer. And remember, once you pass your check ride, we'll get you up on the Hogs Wall of Fame, send you the no go live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com and within the next few days, we're gonna make a big announcement about the Hogs Wall. Doing a bit we've been doing an update, and we're gonna hopefully finish it and get it all prettied up tomorrow. So we're gonna announce that and have some special giveaways for some checkride pictures that you might be sending in very soon. All right, let us know down your Let us know your thoughts down below the video on how nervous you were at solo and do you think it's normal? All right, peace out. See you next video.