Pilot Life: Flying with My Uncle (Not Logged)

If I am not able to fly with UVU and any of their planes, I'll go flying with my uncle (who IS a flight instructor!) instead! It's currently spring break and I've got the entire week off from school. Having nothing better to do in Provo given how frustrating last week has been, I decided to drive up to Ashton, Idaho to visit my relatives since I haven't been in two years. After all the frustration from this major clusterf#*% I've been putting up with, it was nice to get away from my problems at flight school for a moment. Better yet, it was nice to go out and fly for fun after not having been in well over a month at this point. It just felt good to spread my fledgling wings and get airborne. This morning, my uncle took me to the Saint Anthony Airport just south of Ashton and he took me up flying in his Mooney M20. Better yet, he let me fly from the left pilot seat and work the radios! But because the Mooney is a more complex plane and not a training aircraft (mainly due to the fact that it has retractable landing gears), I couldn't log any flight time in it and I was fine with that because I was just happy to go flying again after not doing so for well over a month now. Plus, I plan on getting checked out in my uncle's Mooney and log some legit hours AFTER I get my private pilots license!

Mooney M20F Executive (N9716M), the very same aircraft I've flown in as a passenger or observer many times. Today was the very first time I got to sit in the left seat of this airplane.

We drove up to the hangar where my uncle's Mooney is kept and opened it up; I haven't seen this airplane since September 2015 which also the last time I saw my uncle during our annual Reno trip. Once the hangar doors were opened, we performed the pre-flight check; we checked the fuel quantity, cleaned the windshield, and performed all the other necessary checks. Once done with pre-flight, we pulled the plane out of the hangar by hand and we hopped in. But first, my uncle had to take a selfie!

Me and my uncle Sam in the Moon-dog (that's the nickname of his airplane!)!
(No, my uncle Sam does not wear a patriotic top hat and points at you like in those historical posters!)

Once we hopped in the airplane and closed the door, my uncle walked me through the start-up process and the associated checklists. We started up the engine and my uncle walked me through a few other things with the complexities of the Mooney M20's cockpit controls. My uncle then had me begin taxiing the airplane; it was like any other airplane I've taxied before. Because of the Saint Anthony Airport's taxiway and runway layout, we had to backtaxi on runway 04; it does not have a separate paved taxiway parallel to the runway. And since the airport is uncontrolled, radio calls went out via the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). Before entering the runway, I verified that there was no traffic inbound on final approach on either end of the runway and there were no other aircraft or vehicles on the runway and made my radio call on the CTAF stating our intentions of beginning the backtaxi. Let me just say, it felt awesome to say the tail number of my uncle's Mooney on the radio!

As we taxied to the opposite end of the runway, my uncle had me do gentle S-turns to get a feel for the rudder pedals and the Mooney's taxiing characteristics. Still, the plane's landing gear is a tricycle configuration like the DA-20 Katanas I've been flying so I was pretty comfortable taxiing it. Once we got to the end of the runway, we pulled off to the side next to the displaced threshold, where we would do our run-ups. My uncle walked me through the run-ups as we checked the engine gauges and systems. Again, similarities and differences were apparent. One additional thing I had to check during the run-up in the Mooney was engine performance with propeller configuration. So far, I've been used to the DA-20's fixed-pitch propeller, but my uncle's Mooney has a variable-pitch propeller, meaning that the propeller blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. I'll eventually learn how to do this myself when I go into more complex airplanes in my flight training but for today, my uncle would take care of propeller pitch.

Once run-ups were complete, we were ready for takeoff. Once again, I verified that there was no other aircraft in the air on final approach or on the runway. I made the radio call on the CTAF taxied and lined the Mooney up on the runway, advanced the throttle and we began takeoff roll. My uncle walked me through things as we picked up speed and helped me rotate the aircraft and we were airborne. Once clear of the runway, my uncle had me turn out to the west over the city and towards the Saint Anthony Sand Dunes, a local area attraction. Over the dunes, my uncle had me go through the paces and just fly the airplane around so I could get a feel for the Mooney's handling characteristics. And let me tell you, the controls in my uncle's plane is a lot stiffer than what I've been used to so it takes quite a bit of physical effort to work the control yoke, flaps, trim, and landing gears! The Mooney truly flies like a commercial aircraft!

After practicing some coordinated turns for a little bit, we headed back to the airport to do some touch-and-goes. Once again, I got to make the necessary radio calls over the airport's CTAF as we approached the airport. I set us up on the downwind at traffic pattern altitude and my uncle walked me through how landings are done in the Mooney. He also introduced me to the "GUMPS" checklist, which is a mental checklist to ensure nothing critical has been forgotten before landing. Each character in the "GUMPS" acronym stands for Gas (fuel), Undercarriage (the landing gears, especially for an airplane with retractable landing gears; very important to make sure they're down and locked!!!), Mixture, Propeller, and Seat belts; for every landing, it's important to go through this particular checklist and ensure a safe landing. On the downwind, I lowered the flaps all the way and made the turn on base to final and lined up with runway 04. Once it was determined that the runway was made, I reduced the power back to idle and allowed the plane to float down until contact was made with the pavement. The landing wasn't perfect (considering that I was flying a completely different airplane!), but I added power and got us back up in the air again for another round in the pattern.

All the while, my uncle continued to talk me through a lot of things and gave me some great advice. We did several touch and goes and my uncle even took some landings for himself. After we've had enough we came in for a full-stop landing on runway 04 and taxied back to my uncle's hangar. There, we shut the engine down, hopped out and pushed the plane back into the hangar. The Mooney M20 is definitely different in handling; heck, I'd say it's a beast but it sure is fun to fly! While I'm still frustrated by what I've been putting up with at UVU, I really had fun flying with my uncle this monring and getting a proper introduction to a more complex aircraft even if I couldn't log the flight time as per regulations. And I'm certainly grateful for my uncle for taking me up and I'm really grateful that aviation runs in the family so I can have some connections at a more personal level.