Kenny Keller shows pilots how to use the aircraft compass as a heading reference in the cockpit. He walks through turning to different headings and recounts a checkride where a disoriented pilot lost track of direction in the pattern, then advises checking the compass before making radio calls.
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July 8, 2025
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All right, we have a little tip for you for help keeping yourself organized in the cockpit and your situational awareness. Occasionally in training and even in a recent checkride with somebody who got discombobulated during their pattern work and getting back in the pattern and unsure where they were at and made a mistake on a checkride. And I just want to give you this simple tip. If you always use the compass to your benefit, just think it's always going to point towards where you're going. So right now, we're heading east. The bottom of the compass is always telling you where you've been, where'd you come from? So I'm going east, and I came from the west. If I want to go south, I'm going to turn right, because you can see it right there. If I want to go to the north, I'm going to turn left. So when you get ready to make your radio calls and the recent problem we had on a checkride, the guy, again, was confused with his direction and made a bad call because he was unfamiliar with where he was at. So very simply, just remember, always look to the compass. If you're just even a little bit confused, look up and go. Okay, I know this is where I'm going. It's pointing the direction you're flying. The direction at the bottom is where you just came from. So I'm headed east, coming from the west. If I wanted to go south, I would turn right. And you could use that to help not only just keeping your direction, but with your radio calls on, which way you're going to be turning and what you're going to be doing. So just a simple, easy little tip. Work on your situational awareness in the cockpit and always try to have a good idea of where you're at, what the directions are around you. So with that being said, for some more free tips, go to askhubs.com 15 years of my content. Free content, paid content, blogs, videos, podcasts, all loaded into my clone. Totally free for you@askhawks.com and also we have an affiliate program. We haven't talked about it enough. We have people every month getting money from Heather. She just sent out payments. Today we pay 50 commissions. If you refer someone to our HOGs training, you can sign up for it@hogspaceme.com and earn 50%. Simple and easy. See you in the next 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.
