Yet again, over 100 hours, No PRIVATE PILOT rating…

Been a little while since I made a video from just home. I always think I got to have a fancy shiny yellow R44 in the background, and why not, right? Why not show that off? But I, I just got home Sunday. I don't usually go to the airport on weekends, but lately I've been at the airport every weekend because I want to be, not because I have to be. And, uh, I had a visitor today, a Hogs member/fan. Somebody's been following me for a while. And somebody my age, closer, a lot closer to my age than what a lot of you are. And, uh, he stopped by because I— he contacted Heather and said, hey, I'm just in the area, I'm for business, I happen to be in Warsaw, there any way I could stop by? And normally last minute things we can't usually do like that because we have people, but it's Sunday, had to meet my sister at the airport to help her clean up her car. And, uh, I said, oh, I'm gonna be at the airport, sure, why not. He's like, I'll just only like take 10 minutes of your time, I promise. And so I told Heather, go ahead and have him swing by. And had a great conversation with this gentleman. And it's kind of fun because I told him I was going to make a video tonight— or I didn't say tonight, so I'm going to make a video on this topic. And the first I want to say is, you know, we talked about the video I did the other day and he loved it. It was that 39-minute where it seemed like kind of like a rant. And I go, well, you know, I've been wondering about that. I was just trying to decide whether I want to leave that video up or not. And he goes leave it. Don't change it. He goes, people like me that have been following you and we know who you are and what you do, we like it. He goes, now somebody new to you, they might see that and it might kind of turn them the wrong way. And I go, well, that's fine. I don't really care, right? I am who I am. I do what I do. So anyway, uh, that video is going to stay. I'm not taking it down. I wasn't mad. I'm not mad at people that came here. I'm mad at in that video, I'm just frustrated with flight schools and instructors that can't do their job. That's basically it. And then the poor excuses people sometimes give when they come and they're supposed to be ready and they're not. So if you want to watch that video, you can go back and check it out. But what I want to talk about today is he said he think he got the impression that all we do is final approach courses, we won't help anybody other than that. And I'm like, no, I don't— I never really said that. I go, in the video the other day, I was talking about Chapter A and Chapter B, meaning if you want to come and do a checkride but your requirements aren't done, yeah, you can come here and train, but we're not going to do finish all your training and then also do final approach course at the same time because final approach course we set up for somebody qualifications are done, requirements are done, you've been prepping, you're ready to go, you just need finishing touches. You want somebody to help you finish up. You're coming from a school that, well, for whatever reason, they won't sign you off, or their examiner's unavailable, or their instructor left, or their helicopter's broken. Long list of reasons why people can't get finished up. That is the final approach course. He goes, because I— he's— this gentleman, particular, particular, can't speak. This gentleman had some incredible notes. I mean, this guy, the studies he's done, he showed me what he had with him and what he'd been working on. Incredible note-taker. And he, like everybody else, had some, some circumstances in his life that held up taking tests. It was taking care of some family members, which I get, right? Family always comes first, number one above everything. So he was close to taking his checkride and then he had to take care of some family things and Now he wants to get back in it, but he obviously needs to refresh because it's been a little bit, and he's got to take another written again and needs to get back in the helicopter and get freshened up. And he goes, well, where could I go? And I go, well, you can come here. And he goes, I can? And I go, yeah. And he goes, well, that's not very clear in your videos. Your videos say you have to be ready. And I go, all right, I tried to explain that in the video. And he goes, well, it wasn't very clear. And I go, you know what, I'll make a video I'll make a video and put it out as my next video. And he goes, will you really? And I go, yeah. So he was excited when I said, look, you're, you had to take a break for a while to take care of family. So you say, look, I got to refresh my written test. I got to study again. I got to get current in the helicopter again. I go, okay, so here's what we do. Whatever you think you need, you can come for, let's say, a Monday through Friday. And we'll do nothing but get you in the helicopter, get you current again. Go through the types of ground subjects. Think we'll do the practice test, you know, I'll ask you questions, you answer, I'll help direct you. Because I can tell by his notes he has way too much information. And he flew with one, one instructor. He said this instructor is like 80 years old. He goes, no, I'm not kidding, he's 80. And he goes, he was a great instructor, but he goes, when I said, how do I do the ground studies, the guy said I don't know, figure it out, go online, right? Like, the guy that was training him, Vietnam-era pilot, I'm sure a phenomenal pilot, the guy probably taught him tons of great stuff as far as going out in the helicopter. But as far as ground, he just— the guy said, I don't know, I'm 80 years old, I'm not dealing with it. I'll teach you how to fly the helicopter, I ain't dealing with the ground, figure it out. And I go, well, that's funny because normally you hear Oh, just read the book. An instructor somewhere will say, well, here's the book, read it, right? I go, this is a new one. An instructor that just says, I don't know, figure it out. And I don't blame that guy, right? He's 80 years old. He's a Vietnam-era pilot. That gentleman deserves to do whatever the hell he wants to do. And if he could still fly in the aircraft, and he said he couldn't really even fly an hour anymore. He could handle about a half an hour. And then he would be done, right? I get that. That situation, that gentleman, that instructor has reserved or deserves the right after 80 years still being in a helicopter and a Vietnam-era veteran. That guy's got whatever he wants to do. That's cool with me. I'm not going to complain about that. But you get my drift. Another guy with over 100 hours. No private pilot rating. Common theme. And we sat at length and discussed this. And he's like, Kenny, you're right what you complain about in your videos and in your video the other day. And he goes, it hit home. And I end up in Warsaw, Indiana. And I thought, God, if I could just stop by just a little bit. Anyway, same old story. Somebody's got over 100 hours. And a lot of them lately, people have had over 100 hours and they don't have any solo time. Because some school just won't solo them. They don't want them taking the aircraft out, so they'll build up their time. No rating, no solo. I have a gentleman this week, tomorrow, came from Alaska. He's going to be here for the next, I don't know, 7 or 10 days. Got over 100 hours, no solo time. So I'm going to work with him, see where he's at, check his ground, see how his flying's doing. And I said, and then we'll go from there. Let's get you let me see where you're at before I, you know, before you— I'll let you solo my aircraft. I got to do your knowledge. I got to go through that shirt with you and make sure your knowledge is where it needs to be. And I got to make sure your skills are good in the helicopter before I let you solo my helicopter, right? And I said, just come down. And I go, I can't guarantee you a checkride, but I will certainly do what I can to get you in the right direction. So that's what this video is about, in essence. Yes, if you want to come here because you want some help finishing maneuvers, you've got, you still got some cross-country to do, or you need some night, that's okay. We'll do that. We can come for a 2 or 3 or 4 day block or 5 day block. Actually, I'm welcoming the one, like the one this week, it's like, hey, I don't have to worry about a checkride with this guy. So my week is going to be, yeah, I'm going to be there Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day training. Excuse me, just got home from the pizza joint. But if I don't have the stress of a checkride on Friday, hell, it'll be a fun week for me, right? I don't have the, all right, crunch time, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we got to be ready for a test. That's stressful. And that's where a guy gets, you know, you get tired and you get aggravated and that's just the way it works. And that's part of it. And again, the video the other day, I'm not apologizing, you know? Yeah, I was a little aggravated. I don't care. Right. I'm just passionate about what I do and I'm tired of seeing the same things over and over again. And people are getting ripped off daily, weekly. We hear the stories every week. Anyway, I'll move on. I just want to make that point that if you want to come to Hogs to train and it's R44 only at this point, that's all we have. You want to come for a couple of days, 3 days or a 5-day chunk because you got some things you want to work on and you want to steer towards finishing up, but you got things to finish. Great, come up, we can do that, and then you can take a break, go back home for a week or two, and then we can schedule you to take a checkride 2 weeks in advance, a month out, because when I do the checkrides, I want like a month's notice with the examiner, because when I do 2 people, he'll come to us, and you get to take the checkride at our hangar, in the comfy place where we sit and do our ground, All we gotta do is get there in the morning and be ready to go. Versus if it's kind of a more of a last-minute thing and I ask my examiner for a favor, he'll usually say, well, I can do it, but I could do it, say, Thursday, but you got to fly to me. You got to meet me somewhere because he drives a long way to come over here. So I can do more of a last-minute thing only when somebody wants to be flexible and go to the examiner, if that makes sense. So in essence, Normally we prepare two and I normally have Hauser helping me prepare two people, but Hauser's, he buys, he flies a Bell 429 for a private individual. And this winter his schedule had been light and he could come and help me quite often. And his schedule's gotten busier for the spring and into summer. And he's like, dude, I don't know how much I can be. I can still help you when I can, but only might be like a day or two a week. So I can't do two people at the same time because I'm not going to do that. You get what we do is one-on-one, right? But if I have two people here, two applicants here, I have Hauser here helping me. So one of us, I'm doing ground, Hauser's doing the flying. So one guy's flying, one guy with me doing ground, guy or girl. That flight gets done. They come in, take a little break. They switch. The other one goes and gets in the helicopter and I stay there doing ground. And I keep both people on track with the same subject so I know where we're at. And then if weather's bad, we can kind of, you know, do a little bit of ground together. But anyway, that's how it works. I just want to explain what it is we do. The Final Approach Course is our specialty. That is, your written's done, your night's done, your dual is done, all of the stuff is ready. You're coming for 3 hours of flight time 3 or 4 days of ground paperwork. It's a day, half a day, half a day for 8710 most generally, and other paperwork and your cross-countries if you're an initial, and weight and balance. And just, it's a day of paperwork getting ready to go. So I hope that makes sense on what it is exactly we do. And that's part of the frustration from the last video was people saying, well, I'm ready, but then they get here and, well, no, you're not ready. Because this wasn't filled out right, this endorsement wasn't right. Oh, this cross-country that was supposed to be this long is not long enough. Oh, that one leg was supposed to be this— no, you did 25 instead of over 25. That's where I'm going with all this. So I want to clarify that. Hopefully this gentleman sees this video. He will, I'm sure, because I told him I'm going to make this video for you. So to clear it up The final approach course is final prep, 3 hours of flight, usually 4 days of ground, which is in that 4 days we're doing the 3 hours of flying because we got to fly the 3 to sign you off. Got to have that 3 minimum. And then if we're doing 2, examiner comes to us. If we're doing a specialty thing and somebody wants in really, really quickly, like I've got another CFI applicant that I Zoomed with today. And she's like, I want to do it, but I want to do it like, how soon can you do it? I'm like, here's the deal. I got a guy coming from Alaska. Let me see how that goes. Hit your ground because she had some holes in her FOIs and like study those FOIs hard the next several days. And then if you want to come up and you're willing to the fact that we work with the examiner where we go, hey, on this date, We'll come over to you if that's okay, because she's in a hurry and she's okay with that extra flight going over there and back. I might try to work her in again because we're going to go see the examiner. I'm going to try to work her in after the guy from Alaska. So I can pull off special things, but just make it clear, that's what the final approach course is. If you need something else and you want to come down, come over, drive up, whatever, and work on getting everything ready, that's a possibility. We can do that for you. But I just don't want to— it's too much stress to go, oh well, I want to come and do a checkride, but I got to finish my night and I still got another hour solo and I still got the written, it's not done yet. That's a no. We're not— don't come here. Get the written done and call us back. But you get my drift? That's the separation. Final Approach is somebody just needs to finish 3 hours of flight polishing. 4 days ground, fly-in, paperwork, polish, polish, polish, ready for the examiner to walk in the door on the 4th or 5th day. If you need a little extra help, you can come do that. I'm more than happy to. So there you go. I told him I'd make this video. I'm going to upload it. Um, I'm tired. And some of these ideas, like some of these things just come in. I'm going to make a video on this and then they never happen just because I get busy and I can't get all these videos made. And I just got home and thought, you know what, sit down, hit record so I can get this message out there because I promised him I would do it. And I just gotta say, I kind of— I was happy to see him. Um, like I said, it's a Sunday, I wouldn't normally do that, and I wouldn't do that when there's— when I was a customer here. But I'm glad I did because he's like, you know, he gave me some pretty nice compliments and said, dude, you're what's inspiring me to get back and finish this thing. And don't change who you are. And, and when I said, we know, I'd been questioning that video, that last one. He goes, don't change it. Don't change it at all. Cause that's what we dig about you because I hit hard and I say what's on my mind and I don't care who hears it, but that's just me. That's part of it. And that's why this works, what we do. So I was glad he stopped by. It was nice to hear some words of encouragement. Well, sometimes you're out here in the middle of nowhere going, does anybody listen? Does Does anybody care? Almost nobody's commenting. So glad you stopped by. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up and upload this dude, and we'll see in the next video. Peace out.