Pilot Life: Taking My Roommate, Darwin Flying!

This morning, I took up Darwin, another one of my roommates flying; he's flown as a passenger on airliners before, but this was his first time flying in a small, General Aviation aircraft as well as his first time flying from the cockpit of an aircraft (well, the Katana is just cockpit and wings!). I was the first pilot to fly the Katana I scheduled us to fly in, so pre-flight took a little longer because the plane was plugged into an external power source and portable heaters to keep it warm. Plus, my Katana was in the hangar with three other airplanes, so I had to pull one Katana out to get mine out! While I was at it, I did the pre-flight in the hangar to stay mostly out of the cold wind; it was still cold regardless! After I did the pre-flight, I towed the airplane over to the fuel pumps and added some fuel. After what ended up being a 45 minute pre-flight process, I finally got my roommate who was waiting inside and we hopped in, and I got the engine started. After a brief taxi and run-up, I taxied us to the runway and go us airborne.

Another flight taking a passenger in N802CT.

I turned us out to the south and followed I-15 for the little sight-seeing flight. Like my previous outings with my previous passengers so far, the flight consisted of a little sight-seeing around the valley and a couple of orbits around the Payson LDS Temple.

View of the Payson LDS Temple.
(Photo credit: Darwin Dender, my passenger for today!)

I was also contemplating about doing some touch-and-go's at Provo like I have been doing, but I was hesitant initially because of an inversion making visibility a slight issue. In the end, I determined it was safe to fly up there and do some landings there, so I picked up the current ATIS weather information and called up the tower and received instruction.

Flying northbound to Provo Airport.
(Photo credit: Darwin Dender.)

I entered the downwind leg and proceeded to work the Provo pattern, with the occasional addition of instruction from the tower; in some instances tower instructed me to extend the downwind leg for other traffic. On one lap, a CRJ-200 flew in on the ILS approach of Runway 13, so I had to take caution for the jet's wake turbulence. After logging three landings, I decided to take us back to Spanish Fork, where did one lap around the pattern with a touch-and-go landing followed by a full-stop landing. After clearing the runway, I taxied us back to the ramp and called it another successful flight, with my fourth passenger.

Obligatory selfie; I wasn't even ready! Thanks Darwin for flying with me!
(Photo credit: Darwin Dender!)