My Helicopter Check-Ride-Itis & HOGS New Membership Options

Hey members, quick video for you. I just took a checkride yesterday. Yes, me, for the first time in quite a while I went to CFI reinstatement checkride. So I'm gonna have some fresh, some fresh content for you on. I got tripped up on what I a little bit on what I preach all the time to you people, guys and girls about getting tripped up on the simple stuff during a checkride. I did some advanced teaching that went great. Examiner tripped me up right in the beginning with some very simple stuff and we're going to do some videos on that. So new CFI reinstatement. Okay, I want to tell you about some changes to memberships. First off, no. If you're currently in a monthly membership, you can keep it at the current price for as long as you wish. Okay? So please, I hope you watch this video if you're a monthly member so you understand you can keep the monthly that you have as long as you like at the current price. Today I'm making changes go live on our home site for anybody new coming in and we've made some simple changes to make signing up easier. More content per membership. So you're going to hear it and see it. Just know if you're on a current monthly membership, you can keep as long as you like at the current price. Nothing's going to change for you. Okay, so I'm getting ready to go to the Hogs Wall of Fame here real quick. Heather was in yesterday. Kevin Pritchard, commercial pilot. Wesley Rhodes, commercial pilot. Mark Lozano, commercial pilot. All going up on the Hogs Wall. Juan Torella, private pilot. Margaret Link, private pilot. Michael Worth, private pilot. Samuel Hearn, private pilot. Alex Morand, private pilot. These are all going on the Hogs Wall of Fame. Heather I think is coming back in tomorrow. So in case you just log in for the first time in a while due to Covid and the world going nuts. So I'm letting Heather work from home most of the time she's handling the hog support number 574-767-1797. She's taking care of that seven days a week. So you can text or call Heather at that number 574-767-1797 and she will get back to you as soon as she can. And also we're going to go to support helicopterground.com email as well because I'm always thrown out where you can, you know, email Heather at this one or email me at this one or email Brian at that one. I thought let's make this simpler too. Let's just do supportelicopterground.com and then one of us will take care of getting back to you, depending on who's got what going on. Nobody knows this. I just had my appendix removed last month. So, you know, I was down for a few days where I couldn't do anything. Recovered pretty quickly and we're all good to go now. So we're just going to use supportelicopterground.com and I think that's going to work out better for being able to get you probably faster, faster responses depending on who's doing what. We'll all share the responsibility of making sure you get answered for basically anything. So hope you're all doing well. Gonna have some new comment or content coming for you. I'm gonna do some stuff on the simple questions that he asked me. That is the simple stuff that I got through it. But it really made me think and I wish I would have refreshed my knowledge on simple things like what do you have to have on you, what has to be in the aircraft, you know, what do you got to be. Current medical questions and then airspace. I preach all the time about airspace. I got tripped up on a couple of airspace things because I hadn't looked at it recently. So if you're going for an add on checkride or some kind of renewal, people make sure you refresh airspace, man. And it was fun. It was a great experience because I preached this stuff and then I got caught up in it and went, I know better, right? I mean, it's just funny. It's funny how it works out, but it was a great experience. Jason, one of our ground school members that's on the Hogs Wall of fame times two already for his private add on, his commercial add on. He was there yesterday too, and he did his CFI add on prior to me doing mine. My CFI reinstatement, yes, I let it lapse. Okay? So bad me, don't let your CFI expire, okay? Because if you let your CFI expire, you have to go take a check ride. There's nothing else you can do prior to it. You can renew online. You can renew an activity. There's a list in the Far AIM manual of ways you can renew the cfi. And I normally do it just like an online refresher course. And mine was coming close to expiring. I was at the very end and Gloria and I were going somewhere for a couple days and I and I was trying to do it online while I was traveling and then I just thought, you know what? I'm taking away from time with my daughter, screwing around online, trying to take a 16 hour online refresher course. And I just said, you know, what? Time with my daughter was more important. And the check ride was, you know, going for the reinstatement check ride. It was a good experience. I'm glad I did it. But, you know, I spent money on an aircraft that I didn't really need to. I did do it in the Cadbury. And so I'm happy to relay that Chris Hauser did a nice job at getting me prepped in the Cabaret, which prior to a year ago, I had no time in the Cabaret. And the last couple of flights before the CFI checkride went really well. And I was glad I did those last couple flights. And I have to tell you what I preach all the time come out to be true. Yesterday. I tell people all the time, you'll fly kind of crappy as you get up close to the day of your checkride. And usually the day before is not the best day to fly because you just as you get close to that date, your nerves start getting to you. And then people many times will be surprised at how well they do in the aircraft with the examiner when they're nervous and they're stressed. And I'm here to tell you, it happened to me yesterday. I was nervous. Even though I've been doing this for a long time, and I know this examiner for a long time, we've done all these checkrides all these years, 20 years, I was still intimidated by the guy, even though we're friends and I like him, he's a great fair examiner. He's very thorough. And, you know, it threw me off my game a little bit, right? Just that sitting there and having somebody asking you questions and putting you on the spot, it freaking gets the best of us, man, I'm telling you. And so it was a great experience. But I can tell you I was really happy with the flight starting off easy. It was at an airport that I haven't flown at in a long time, and it was kind of busy with a lot of traffic. And so I was a little intimidated at first with the examiner in the aircraft with me and an airport I'm not familiar with. I don't fly all the time. And so the first five or ten minutes I struggled a little bit, kind of getting warmed up. But then after that, the flight went really, really well and we got done. He goes, well, what you think of the flight? And I went I think I did good. And he goes, well, you did do well. And I'm like, thank you. And he's like, I don't very often hear people say that. Usually they're complaining. And I was actually happy. And I just want to reiterate that even though you're stressed, sometimes stress can be a good thing. I mean, too much stress with not enough rest and not being prepared, now that's a bad thing. But some of the stress for these checkrides can actually help you do well and do better and. And especially on the flight. So if you need anything support at helicopterground.com hogs member customer service, text or call 574-767-1797 and we'll see you in the next video. Peace out.