Kenny Keller and CFI Todd Ketterman walk through becoming a helicopter pilot, from ground school to checkride. They emphasize that study discipline matters more than flying ability, cover costs and financing options like the GI Bill, and offer a free training blueprint at privateblueprint.com.
We're back here with Kenny Keller, everybody.
From Helicopter Online grounds.
We are back here, everybody, with Todd Ketterman, CFI Helicopter, who did his ratings with us last summer, Commercial and CFI here at the Hogs hangar in our wonderful refurbished R44. And we are doing a series of videos on questions we're getting through our clone. If you don't know, we have a clone@askhogz.com available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, pulls from 13 years of my online content, both free and paid content. You can ask it anything. And we have a question or questions about how to become a helicopter pilot. Indicate a need for clear step by step guidance or a structured pathway that you could provide to help beginners start their journey in aviation. And we have a perfect topic or resource for this. It's called Private Pilot 101 Helicopter Training Blueprint. We put this together last summer, last winter actually, where our helicopter was gone for a couple months as the after the big overspeed. And we lay out all types of tips, tricks, things you need to know, things that maybe a flight school is not specifically telling you because there are a lot of hurdles out there that aren't always explained in the beginning. This is a free resource, free download and we'll put the link down below. It's called privateblueprint.com Is that right, Lindsay? Privateblueprint.com free PDF and you can also order the paperback copy as well. Well, let's just see what's in the book. I haven't looked at it in a while. Here we go. Is learning how to fly a helicopter difficult? How long will it take to become a private pilot? How much will it cost to be a private pilot? What is the best approach to selecting a flight school? And the list goes on and on and on. We when we first put the book together, we thought let's cover a lot of the basic questions that come in almost on a daily or weekly basis. And then like need to know, you know, is there financing available for flight training? Can I use funds from the GI Bill for flight training? And then we go more into, you know, the maneuvers and preparing for the practical test and the day of the test. There is a ton of info in here and this is combined, you know, the experiences of what we've seen over many years of what it takes to get through the testing. Todd, insight on your pathway to become a helicopter pilot.
What would you tell?
What would you tell a brand newbie?
Oh my goodness.
Other than to go get the free download?
Study, study Study. I mean it, it, it's, I think Kenny's online course kind of lays it out. You start, you know, follow the breadcrumbs, you know, step number one, I mean you gotta, you gotta have an interest. Don't they tell us that in the, you know, there, there's gotta be purposeful, you gotta have an interest, you gotta want to do it. So I think, I think having that, that need to discover what's it about and you're going to be led straight off right from the beginning. Private Pilot 101. It's going to be hitting the books, getting the knowledge.
The knowledge is always the problem. It's never the flying. Flying is the easy part. Everybody wants to go fly and have fun. Shiny paint, navigation, lights. Ooh, helicopters are cool. But guess what, there's a whole ton of study in like a small college course or not even a small college course. It's a ton of information. People always fall behind because they want to fly, fly, fly flight. Schools want this blade spinning and they want to throw the books at you and go, here are the books, read it, go do that at home. And they just want you in the aircraft. And that is many times why this turns into something that's going to take you longer, you're going to spend more money. So as Todd was saying, you have to be committed because you, it's hard, it's hard to study, it's hard to learn the aircraft in the beginning. There are so many stumbling blocks that you're going to run into. It's not an easy task. So if you're going to do it, you have to be super committed and ready to take on all the obstacles that are going to come your way.
I mean, you're right. I mean even, even just understanding the aerodynamics of a helicopter, just, you know, what's happening with all these moving parts and a little bit different than the airplane behind because in the helicopter you're in a three dimensional object and you've got thrust and you've got torque and you've got all this stuff working against you. So having a good fundamental understanding of how those forces are working when you get in that helicopter and you're using your anti torque pedals and understanding which one's the thrust pedal and which one's the power and what's happening, it's just good to understand it in the videos that are online that Kenny's put together, go through all of those in detail. So I think that's a great starting point.
Helicopterground.com link down below so, yeah, there you go. Private Pilot 101. That's what we're still talking about, right? This is going to help you with that path to get on your way to Private Pilot. So with that being said, go check out our social media. Something I haven't done a lot is push the social media thing over the years, but we've been beefing that up a little bit. We've got a team here behind the scenes, we're doing a lot of posting, taking a lot of really great photos and we need a little love on those social media channels. Those links are down below. LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, they're all down below. So go down and give us a like and spread the love. Right, Toddles.
Peace out.
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 helicopterground.com and it's pulling from 13.
Years of my knowledge. This in video and print. What are you grinning about? Knowledge in print? What? What did I say? What was the word I was trying to say? From. From. I said from.
I think you said flum.
All right, so I should just start over, right? We're back with another video on a topic that we get. Fuck. Topic that we get. Fucking.
