No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

Meet our HOGS Member Dan Christman! Dan fly's UAV's in the Air Force! He also is a Dual Rated Airplane and Helicopter Certified Flight Instructor! Dan joined us during our Live Book Launch yesterday! Check out Kenny's New Book at www.htbyob.com

First, since these two guys are over here waiting, we'll get Dan up here first. Come on over here and jump in front of the camera. Dan, you have seen him on Facebook as Taz, is his nickname. He was here about a year ago. Was it a year ago or two years ago?

 No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

Dan:                                     About two years ago.

Interviewer:                       Blueberry. Going on almost two years since you have been here.

Dan:                                     Probably, pretty close.

Interviewer:                       A ton of stuff has changed since you were here. Were we even over here doing all this?

Dan:                                     You had just started setting this up.

Interviewer:                       Just started setting up. You are from Indiana.

Dan:                                     Yes.

Interviewer:                       From the Rochester area. Helicopter instructor and fixed wing instructor. Been a Ground School member for a couple of years, and you used Ground School to get what ratings?

Dan:                                     My CFI, and probably the tale end of my commercial.

Interviewer:                       Awesome. What is fun about this is, today is the big launch of the book How to Build Your Online Business, but we are documenting Helicopter Online Ground School, how I did that. Helicopter Online Ground School and How to Build Your Online Business operate in the same system, so the things we're talking about as far as someone coming into your membership site, using your training, logging into their iPhone, their iPad, their desktop, whatever the case is, it's going to work the same for anybody wanting to build their online business. I want to say to my members that are worried, oh, Kenny is going to be doing that now, he's not going to be doing Ground School! That is not the case. We've been documenting for three years what we do and how we do all this.

                                             I enjoy teaching, I love teaching, I still fly, I'm still flying, Gary is coming full time, so any Ground School members watching, don't worry. It's not like, oh, Kenny's not flying anymore, he's going to blow Ground School off, because that is not the case. Ground School is going to get bigger and better than ever. As soon as Gary gets here, I've been telling people for a few weeks Gary is going to be starting, but his retirement got delayed a little bit. He's here flying all the time, and as soon as he retires, Gary will be here Monday through Friday, morning til night.

                                             He said, Kenny, I will be there for you every single day. I'm going to  back you up, I will handle customers, I will make sure people get their phone calls returned, I'll go through Ground School, I'll help you do videos. Gary joining is going to be the biggest thing to help move Ground School forward, because when I used to work alone, I tried to do everything. I try to be good at answering people right away. I'm not always as good at it, because sometimes I just plain get overwhelmed and I couldn't always take care of everybody. Gary is going to be full time, he's going to be flying with members, he's going to be helping with Ground School, and we will have a dedicated number where you can call in, Monday through Friday, Gary will answer the phone. He will be able to talk to you, take care of you, unlike the way I have in the past.

No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

                                             Honestly, I can't answer the telephone. I can't have the interruptions. During the daytime, when you are trying to shoot videos, and your phone is going off. There is nothing worse, and nothing more distracting, then trying to do all that. Going off on tangents here because, I told these guys, I'm nervous, I am sick to my stomach, and I do this stuff every day, but today is a big day. It's just different, I don't know why. To have three Ground School members here all at the same time, that's never happened, ever.

                                             Lance is out flying the Enstrom right now, just got his check rig done last night with Gary, we did a short video last night. He shows up Wednesday, has his check rig last night and Sunday. The guy traveled from Texas to fly here just because sometimes at flight schools, you don't have dedicated instructors, they don't want to do Ground School, they jack you around trying to get your rating done. Is that not what happens?

Dan:                                     Absolutely. All the time.

Interviewer:                       We're not time builders here. This is what we do. If you come to finish your rating, we just want to get you done and out of here. We like to fly, flying is fun, but Ground School is number one. Tell us what you do in Vegas?

Dan:                                     I am full time Air Force, and then part-time, after work and on the weekends, I fly helicopters instructing and fixed wing as well. A little bit of both.

Interviewer:                       What do you do in the Air Force?

Dan:                                     Right now, I am flying UAVs.

Interviewer:                       Nice!

Dan:                                     I've been doing that for about five years, flew B1s for about seven years before that, and T38s for about seven years.

Interviewer:                       Wow, that is something I would love to know a little more about. This year, I got to speak at HeliExpo. I had the privilege of being invited by Randy Rowles, and I spoke at the HeliExpo at the flight instructor refresher clinic, and I had several things assigned to me to teach. One of them was UAVs. I had to research real fast and try to put something together, because I'll be honest, I don't know that much about drones. I am just heavy into helicopters. I did a bunch of research getting ready for my presentations down there, and that was going to be my first presentation that day. I have three things ready to go, the first thing I was going to do was the drone stuff. I'm in the room all by myself getting ready for sixty instructors to come walking in, and I am nervous that day because if I was talking to a bunch of private pilots or student pilots, I would be fine, but I am trying to speak in front of my peers, sixty instructors, and I am a nervous wreck.

                                             They come from another class, they all come walking in at the same time, and I go from a big room, huge room, and my presentation is up on the wall ready to teach drones, sixty people walk in and the guy comes over and goes, hey, the drone thing you were going to do first? Just skip that. They've into drones for two hours, they've been hearing about UAVs and these guys are going to be tired, they aren't going to want to hear about it. There went my flow of what I was going to do, what I was going to teach, out the window. I've got to get my mind set to jump into another program.

                                             What I am leading into is, for a long time, we've been talking about doing some kind of a drone course, adding to Ground School. Not that I am drone expert, but what I found very quickly in the research was - and tell me if you think this is correct - seventy five percent of what you are going to have to know to go take the drone test to be a commercial pilot for drones so you can make money, would you say seventy five of it is all the same stuff you have to know for the private helicopter?

No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

Dan:                                     It is. Absolutely.

Interviewer:                       We thought, Gary, Steve and I have been talking about this, why not do a small drone course to help people learn the information for the drone test, because we can take a lot of what we already have built and we have got to add some videos for drone specific things. Gary is a study really hard kind of guy, and you give him a task and he does it, so I thought I can let Gary outline it and what we need, tell me what videos he needs, and we could build something like that together. Do you think that is a good idea?

Dan:                                     Absolutely.

Interviewer:                       A while back I was watching a show on drones, about six months or a year ago, the making of that documentary, they said sixty percent of the military pilots were drone pilots. Is that anywhere close to being ...

Dan:                                     It's probably close. It might be a little exaggerated. I think at one point or another, every Air Force pilot has been a drone pilot of some sort.

Interviewer:                       That brings up the question that I don't see popping up a lot that is one my mind is, how soon do we have to worry about helicopter jobs going away?

Dan:                                     I think helicopters are always going to be there, because there are some tasks that a drone just can't do, that you need a person in that aircraft to actually get in there and do the shots.

Interviewer:                       I of course hope that, too. I make my living with helicopters, flying and teaching in them, and I don't want my livelihood to go away, but drones are here to stay.

Dan:                                     They are not going anywhere.

Interviewer:                       We know they are going to become more and more popular. I find that as something pretty intriguing. I am surprised I don't have more people asking me, hey, aren't you worried about drones? Are they going to put helicopters out of business? Some photo things can be done with a drone, but I think you are right, there are so many things that people still want a pilot. They don't want to climb in something that is just being flown remotely or having a computer take care of the flight for you.

                                             Online training. We know that is where the world is going, because similar to the online business that I am just now launching and building. How did you use Helicopter Online Ground School to study?

Dan:                                     They way I used it was, for instance, for my CFI. Going through the PTS and finding the different subject areas and coming up right in my lesson plans. It's a lot of information. Trying to get it digested, and an easy way to explain: turn to Kenny. Listen to how you explain it, and in that way it helps me understand the relationship. Whether it is the aerodynamics, which I thought, being a fixed wing guy, I thought I knew aerodynamics. I didn't until I learned helicopters. That was a big thing for me, was going through all those videos and really being able to piece it together and be able to now convey it to my students. I always tell out my students, go check out HOGS. Go listen to what Kenny has to say. He's been doing it for a while and he's got a lot of good information.

Interviewer:                       Thank you, I appreciate that. Five years, the success has been amazing. I'll repeat what Gary said, when we were coming back from Gary's commercial. He said, I still read and I still study, but he goes, I study until I can't stand reading anymore, and then I turn on your videos. Gary, for an example, he didn't only just study Helicopter Online Ground School, he's still studying the [inaudible 00:12:43], he's still studying the Helicopter Flying Handbook. He's still studying everything he needs to study, and then using Ground School, kind of like you, as an addition. I have Ground School members now that say they did zero ground with their instructor, and ... I originally designed it as, I called it, Helicopter Checkride Preparation, because I was just going through things they are going to ask you, and then it has grown into a full blown course.

                                             I had Johann - I like talking about Johann - a few years ago, he emails me and says, I am going to be coming to the US to train. I only have two months out of the year, I farm ten months out of the year, I want to come to the US and get my private. I was thinking about using your Ground School. I said, sure. I set him up. Six months or a year goes by and I get an email from Johann's instructor - not Johann, Johann's instructor, Travis, who is now a friend of mine because of this, another connection, these worldly connections - Travis emails me and he goes, Kenny, one of your Ground School members, Johann, walked in the door, got checked out by another instructor. He shows up to start his training and he says the instructor tells me that his ground is done. He goes, I'm thinking this other instructor is just ... there is no way this kid is ready.

No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

                                             He goes, I sat down with him, and he goes, Kenny, he had the knowledge. He had every single thing that he needed. We started flying, within three days he took his written test, and at the end of three weeks he had his private. He was done. He said, I just wanted you know what one of your students did. I about fell out of my chair. I email Johann, and I'm like, Johann, what did you do? Holy cow! He just emailed me back and he said, Kenny, that is what I did. I used your stuff. I got to meet Johann in Long Beach, California last summer and Gloria and I had lunch with Johann with his wife, and we sat and talked, had a nice supper on the beach, and I said, how did you do this? What did you do?

                                             He said, Kenny, I have an iPad that has internet all the time, and I'm in a tractor, so I mounted the iPad in the tractor. He goes, all I am doing is going like this all the day long, up and down the field. Go turn around and come back. I am in the tractor all day on the iPad watching your videos, one after another after another after another. He goes, that is all I did prepping to go to flight school. Are you going to hang around?

Dan:                                     I'll be around for a while.

Interviewer:                       Got anything you want to tell any aspiring pilots? You want to plug what you do in Vegas? About people coming to where you fly? Where do you fly at?

Dan:                                     Airwork Las Vegas.

Interviewer:                       Airwork Las Vegas?

Dan:                                     It's the place that I fly.

Interviewer:                       How many aircraft do you have there?

Dan:                                     We've got two Robinson 44s, a 22, a couple of Schweizer 300s. That's on the helicopter side, and the on the airplane side we've got a couple 172s, Cherokee 180, an Aero, a Super Decathlon.

Interviewer:                       Nice! You've got a nice variety of things to fly. We've talked a little bit about trying to get some instrument stuff done, and we've talked about this back and forth for a while. That's another thing that Gary and I and Steve, and then, hopefully with your help. That is something we need to do next too. All the time, people are going, hey Kenny, when are you going to have an instrument course? I did my private with you, I did my commercial with you, but you don't have an instrument course. We know we need to build, we've been needing to build, but I just couldn't do it alone. I'm just wiped out, tired, burnt out, but now I have Steve. Steve's been full time with me for eight months, Gary going full time. We've got this thing launched today. Gary's thinking now a couple of weeks. We think we can do the drone thing pretty quick, the three of us. We just attack that and get that done, and then we are going to do the instrument thing.

                                             That is where you can come into play to help us organize that. I'm instrument ready to pilot, but I am not instrument instructor. I can teach that theory, or some of it, but we need the ... are you double I?

Dan:                                     I am.

Interviewer:                       We need that expertise of the double I to help us put that together, and I would like to get my double I after we build the training and I watch my own training.

Dan:                                     Sure.

Interviewer:                       Then go take my Checkride for double I. That is something you and I have discussed in the past, and we'll talk some more on that, because you could be the perfect fit. You guide us and we can build and shoot the majority of it, then maybe have you shoot some of it with us and get that build. That would be awesome, because people are asking for it, and I could put that out and members are going to be all over it saying, jeez, that took you long enough! I've done the best I could for five years on my own, and now it's time to again go to the next level.

Dan:                                     Cool.

Background:                      Big shout out to Jim Hardy.

Interviewer:                       Jim Hardy?

Background:                      A new private, going through your site as we speak.

Interviewer:                       Awesome! Very nice. Thanks for tuning in, making a comment, and we are going to give Amazon fifty dollar gift cards today. We decided earlier, the way to enter for this, we have my daughter Gloria and Courtney here, type in HTBYOB ... did we hit it? That's old. HTBYOB, just under the Facebook comment box, Gloria and Courtney are going to keep track of your names, and then in a little while we'll print that document, cut them up, put them in a hat, and one of them will pick out a winner. If you are watching live and you want that fifty dollar Amazon gift card, my plan was to do that at the top of the hour each hour, so start typing in HTBYOB, that's it, that is all you have to put in there. The trick is, if you want to use that, you can go www.htbyob.com and go buy my new book, and give me an Amazon review if you like it. I'm not bribing anybody, because that just wouldn't be moral.

Background:                      Tgregory Barry.

Interviewer:                       He's been coming a lot. What's he got going on?

Background:                      He says great story on -

Interviewer:                       Get the feedback on what he likes, what works, what flows, what doesn't. Just like Ground School, that is what I have done for five years is encourage our members, tell us what works, tell us what doesn't work, tell us what you like, tell me what you don't like. I just said this in another video I just made. People want to see you do well. They don't usually get rude with it, they'll just say, Kenny, the audio's not that great on that, could you make a new video on that? Or, hey we'd like to see this. The feedback is really, really good. I don't ever get upset with anybody when they tell me what they really think. Of course, unless they are being really rude and calling me dirty names, I wouldn't really appreciate that, but in general, people are good and they want to see you do well.

                                             Feedback is how we make Helicopter Online Ground School better, that's how we'll continue to build on this. We're going to be adding to the digital book, the paper book is going to be ready hopefully in the next week or two. Build Your Online Business [inaudible 00:20:24] website, we're adding content to that, because we have been documenting getting ready for today, getting ready to launch, so that is even more content going in there. I feel like I've been up here forever. I feel better now. I don't want to puke like I did a half an hour ago. Everybody was cooler, just going, calm down, you're going to be fine. I'm going, I want to throw up. I am sick to my stomach. Today is just different.

                                             Thank you for showing up today. Thank you for all of your, I know you are always on there liking stuff, sharing stuff. I don't every time say thank you, but thank you for being a member, stopping in a year and a half ago, coming today and joining. To have three Ground School members here in a day, that is a record. I've never had three here all at once, and one from New York City, one from Las Vegas, and one from Texas, all in the same day. How cool is that? Lance is out flying his wife in the Enstrom, enjoying himself, we're going to throw him back in front of the camera too, assuming he comes back.

                                             Let's get Gabriel set up with the microphone.

No. 1 HOGS Member Interview & Behind The Scenes Footage

Note: Since this interview, Taz has coauthored "Top Ten Check Ride Tips" with Kenny Keller and the book hit Amazon #1 best seller within 4hrs! Yes 4hrs

Taz also was awarded the 2018 Flight Instructor of the Year award. Check out his award by clicking here: CLICK

Taz is now a HOGS instructor and presents many of the videos in our FAA certified Helicopter Instrument Pilot Course.

 Check out our free podcast collection for students on-the-go:

Let Helicopter Online Ground School help you with all of your ratings! We have four FAA certified courses, Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor. We have a bundle pack called Professional Pilot Lifetime Membership, which includes all this for life.

Any course completion will automatically award WINGS phase credits and you are on your way to satisfying the flight review requirement.