Pilot Life: Flying with My Uncle Alan!

My uncle Alan is in town this week and he wanted to go flying with me! He owns and flies a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which he used to be here in Utah with his wife this week. My uncle Alan's never flown in a DA20 Katana before, so I was privileged to take him up and have him act as my safety pilot while we shot some approaches into Provo.

I got to take my uncle Alan up in N968CT!

After arriving at the airport, we headed straight for the airplane where we conducted pre-flight and showed my uncle the ropes. We then added fuel before hopping in and starting up the engine. After start-up, I allowed the engine oil temperature to warm up because it was the first flight of the day. Once warm-up was completed, we taxied over to Runway 12, where I did the standard engine run-ups; everything was in the green, so we were ready to get airborne!

I taxied us onto the runway and we got airborne. After getting up in the air, I climbed us out over the airport and departed the area to the west. I then handed control to my uncle and he got his first taste in flying a Katana! I also went under the foggles to log some simulated instrument time. I tuned into Salt Lake Approach and called them up, letting them know that we wanted to shoot the practice ILS 13 approach into Provo. We flew out to the Fairfield VOR and flew the full approach. This was also good practice/observation for my uncle as well because he was planning on working on his Instrument Rating and wanted to see how it worked. We eventually got established on the final approach course and Salt Lake Approach cleared us for the ILS 13 and cut us loose. We were in the air during hours when Provo Tower was closed, so the tower frequency acted as the CTAF and I made my radio calls on it. We continued descending on the glideslope localizer until we hit minimums, where I removed my foggles.

We made a stop-and-go landing on Runway 13 before getting back up in the air again and made left traffic back up to the north. I went back under the foggles and called up Salt Lake Approach and requested radar vectors for the practice ILS 13 approach. The request was granted and we eventually got established once more on the ILS 13 approach into Provo. From that point on, approach cut us loose and I made my radio calls on the CTAF again. Once at minimums, I removed my foggles and made a touch-and-go landing on Runway 13, followed by a straight-out departure back to Spanish Fork. We entered the traffic pattern for Runway 12 and I made a successful, full-stop landing. We taxied the Katana back to the ramp and we called it a successful flight after shutting the engine down. My uncle was able to experience what an instrument approach procedure was like as he acted as my safety pilot, which also allowed him to log pilot-in-command (PIC) time on the Katana. And I was able to log some meaningful simulated instrument time, log the approaches, and include my uncle Alan's name in my logbook for the first time!

Selfie after landing and post-flight! It was so great to fly with uncle Alan and have him act as my safety pilot!