Pilot Life: Taking My Friend, Megan Flying!

What's a better way to spend a Friday afternoon than taking someone flying? I don't think there is anything better than going flying and having the privilege of taking up someone as a passenger who has never flown in a General Aviation aircraft! I took up Megan, a friend and another first-time passenger today and we had a enjoyable afternoon outing!

(And before any of you long-time readers/followers ask, no, it's not weird to be taking my lady friends up for a flight!)

Taking another passenger up in the Piper Cherokee (N7625F)!

After arriving at the airport, we went over to the Piper Cherokee, which was parked next to the maintenance hangar and I did the pre-flight. After pre-flight was complete, we hopped in the plane and I got the engine started. I then taxied the plane a short ways and did the run-ups. After verifying the run-ups showed no abnormalities, I continued the taxi over to Runway 30. But first, we had to take a selfie:

Obligatory selfie before takeoff!
(Photo credit: Megan Stromness, my lovely passenger!)

Once I got us to the runway, I lined up and began takeoff roll and we got airborne. After getting airborne, I pointed the plane south and we then flew around the valley, including a few circles around the Payson LDS Temple for the benefit of my passenger! After we circled the Temple a few times, I took us further south towards Nephi where I would get to do some touch-and-go landings.

As always, I tuned into the airport's AWOS frequency to get weather information and then made my position calls over the radio on the CTAF frequency. Winds were once again favoring Runway 17 so I entered the left pattern and made my standard pattern procedures to landing. I logged three total landings at Nephi while sharing the pattern with another Piper Cherokee. After my third landing, we headed back north to return to Spanish Fork.

Again, I tuned into the appropriate frequencies and made my position reports. I entered the left traffic pattern for Runway 30, the same runway we departed from. I made the full-stop landing and was able to vacate the runway via the next available taxiway. After performing the after-landing checks on the checklist, I taxied us back to the parking spot by our maintenance hangar, where I shut the engine down and called it another successful flight!