A short instructional YouTube video by Kenny Keller teaching two practical techniques for smoother helicopter pickups and set‑downs: (1) a two‑stage pickup (raise collective slowly to get it light, pause and neutralize, then lift to hover), and (2) awareness of an "air cushion" when skids reach roughly 6–8 inches above the surface that can cause wobbling unless you either push through it or descend deliberately. The video closes with promotional information: a free beginner PDF (paperback available March 1), merchandise and freebies at hogsmerch.com, membership discounts through early March, and a live giveaway announcement.
Questions this video answers
About 6 to 8 inches above the surface.
March 1st.
12 years online.
Chapters
Hey, we're going to show you two things with your helicopter pickups and set downs that if you don't already know, you need to know they're going to make these so much smoother. So let's go check it out now and then I'm going to come back and show you some free giveaway stuff.
All right. We're going to talk through a two stage pickup. Every time you pick this helicopter up should be in a two stage pickup. So step number one is we're going to start raising collective real nice, super slow looking outside, 50 to 75ft and glance back in at RPM or manifold pressure. Look back outside. You can check gauges, look back outside. But your main focus should be outside. So I'm gently raising collective very just a little bit by little bit. And it's going to start getting light at a certain point when it starts getting light, the nose is going to want to move left or right, maybe dip down, come or come up the. So you want to pause. That's step number one.
Pause.
Neutralize all those movements. So I'm doing this super duper slow. Starting to get a little bit light. I'm going to go a little more, A little more, a little more. Okay, now starting to move. Okay, so there the nose wants to come up. So I'm going to go here forward Cyclic feels pretty straight at the moment. I'm going to raise a little more.
Collective.
Step number two, gently lift it up. Alright, so that is your two step process. Lift to a hover. And now while we're up, we're gonna do a set down. Now here's the key that if nobody showed you, there's a little bit of an air cushion when we get the skids down to about 6 or 8 inches above the surface. So I'm gonna start coming down. Coming down. I'm lowering collective. Just some pedals, just little minute changes. Right there's your air cushion. So I gotta push a little more down and down to the ground we go. What I'm going to do is I'm going to lift this back up and we're going to do that again and I'm going to come down just a hair slower. And this is where you'll see people, or you may do this yourself in the aircraft. If you're coming down nice and slow, you'll get to that air cushion. Then the helicopter doesn't go any further and that's where people start wobbling all over the place. So let's see if I can demonstrate that. I'm going down. Collective, down, collective. Coming down, coming down now.
Right there.
See how it's hanging? It's going to go back up and it's going to come down. This is where people start doing. They start wobbling the controls and you see somebody doing all this, it's because they got to that air cushion and they think they should be down, but it's not quite getting there. If you come down faster, I'm going to do that now. I'm going to come down kind of quick. You'll push right through the air cushion and there won't be a problem at all.
Okay.
So I'm going to pick it up one more time so we can really demonstrate that. And I'm just making this point clear because anytime you see somebody struggling with setting it down onto the pavement, it's usually because they're hitting that air cushion. And that's where the problem starts. So it's coming down, coming down, coming down, coming down. Right there it is. So I'm not changing anything. And the aircraft will go up a little bit. It'll come down a little bit. They'll go up a little bit and come down a little bit. And I'm gonna demonstrate again. So here's what you'll see people do, or you might do it yourself. You're coming down and you have a nice set down going and all sudden you're like, okay, I should be there. And so then you start monkey with the controls. And this is, this is exactly what people do. And it's nothing more than just a. I don't know what you want to call it, but it's a mind thing.
Right?
Just know on these set downs that there's that air cushion about 6 to 8 inches. We're gonna do it one more time. Coming down, coming down. This is kind of fast. It's gonna go right ahead and touch because I came down faster. All right, so let's talk through pickup one more time. Pick ups and set downs. Practice these as many times as you need. Step number one, get the aircraft. Line the skids. I'm raising collective. Raising collective. Raise them collective. Looking outside, aircraft's getting light, so the nose is going to the right. So I'm going to add a little bit of left pedal. I'm going to raise a little more collective.
Feels pretty good.
Step number two, go ahead and raise the collective to lift it up off the ground and adjust the cyclic and pedals as necessary.
All right, there we go. I'm operating stuff myself today. Oh, my gosh. Can I Get this right, this is the third time, so I'm going to make this short. Those are two things that you need to know. Whether you're brand new to this and you're just learning. I've seen advanced people that have come to fly with us and I'm like, nobody ever showed you the air cushion. What do you do for a pickup? Oh, I just get it light, pick it up. I'm like, ever heard of the two step process? They're like, no. I'm like, that's Basic Private Pilot 101. Speaking of basic Private Pilot 101, it's down below as a free PDF paperback. Will be out in March 1st. Will be available March 1st. We're honing the book. We released a Kindle, we, we have the PDF down below for free. People are consuming it, giving me some feedback. I make little changes, maybe a little addition here or there, but it's for the beginner. That is a free PDF down below right now. And it's also@hogsmerch.com because the hogsmerch.com you can get the new mini no go button. You can get the Hogs ball cap that the girls tell me is the most comfortable cap they've ever had. Also down below, below the video and on the blog post and@hogsmerch.com top 10 checkride tips. That PDF is down there. This is for beginners who have a lot of questions and want a blueprint to help them along the path. We're not teaching all the knowledge areas. We're talking about what it takes to get the private pilot license, the amount of hours, what helicopter you should fly, what do you need before solo and then what happens during the solo and then what happens the day of the checkride. It's a blueprint to help you with a course of action. Because flight schools aren't always, I gotta say it, there are some great schools out there and great instructors out there. More power to them. But there's some shady characters out there and some shady flight schools. You'll wind up with 200 hours and you still don't have a rating. We've done proved it. So hogsmerch.com to get our freebies, the hats, the books and we'll also put some of the links down below this video. So. Oh yeah. 12 years online, 20% off all memberships until March 5th. This is 50% off until March 5th. The end of the cell. We've got this half price right now. Over 400 questions that you could be asking a Private pilot check ride. It's pretty darn handy. It's done proven.
So I'm going to wrap it up.
Because we're coming back Tuesday live next week. We're going to give away some of these. We've never sold these to the public. I'm really happy with these. They go along with the Live to fly another day. This thing's gaining momentum. As soon as I pick an R44 up when it's done, that dude's going in the cockpit. And if I climb in the helicopter and the weather doesn't look so great or my gut says I shouldn't fly, or I find something goofy with the aircraft, I'm gonna go, I ain't going. Ain't worth it. I ain't dying. I ain't dying over stupid shit. All right, all the links down below come back Tuesday and. And we're going to give away free copies of the original books with original covers. We have some left. I'm going to sign them live. So if you're there live, depending on how many people are in there, we got probably 20 books to give away. If you're there, we'll do a little simple, easy contest. And then if you win the book, you don't even have to win. It'll be something easy until the books run out. I'll sign your name live and Heather will ship them to you. And that'll be fun. So that's coming up Tuesday, so stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat channel. 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.
