Pilot Life: Complex Airplane Intro Flight!

I've officially moved out of Provo as of yesterday and now I'm in eastern Idaho for a few days spending time with relatives before making the trip home to Oregon, where I will fly with my uncle Alan and time-build in his Cessna 172. This evening however, I got a chance to go flying with my uncle Sam and this time I got to log time in the Mooney M20! We treated this flight as my formal introduction to a complex airplane (an airplane with retractable landing gear, controllable-pitch propeller or a constant-speed propeller, and movable/adjustable flaps)!

My first logged flight in the Mooney M20F Executive (N9716M)! I like to give my uncle a hard time about his plane and the paint job it has (mainly because yellow is my least-favorite color), but having flown in it a few times over the years informally, I really do enjoy flying it!

After arriving at the airport in St. Anthony, we pulled the plane out of its hangar and I did the pre-flight and walk-around. Soon after, we hopped in and got the engine started; my uncle Sam walked me through a lot of things throughout the flight. And before you ask, no, my uncle Sam does not wear a top hat, patriotic attire, and points at you!

We proceeded to do the run-ups right where we started the engine for the sake of convenience (and to stay in the shade while the sun was setting!). Afterwards, we taxied over to Runway 22 and held short to allow a Turbo Thrush air spray aircraft to takeoff.

Specifically, this Turbo Thrush!

Once the runway was clear, we taxied on to it and started takeoff roll and got airborne. Once again, I was reminded of how different the Mooney handles compared to other aircraft I've logged time in. After getting airborne and doing the after-takeoff checks, we made a left crosswind departure to the east we flew out towards the country side to practice some maneuvers. My uncle and I each did some turns around point. We also took the time for me to get used to the handling characteristics of the Mooney as well; I wasn't expecting perfection since I'm not used to flying high performance and complex aircraft.

After maneuvering around for a bit, we headed back to St. Anthony to practice some touch-and-go landings! My uncle walked me through the flow process; since the Mooney is a lot faster than what I've logged flight time in the past, staying ahead of the airplane was strongly emphasized. Through my mistakes and efforts to stay ahead of the airplane, we managed to log three touch-and-go landings plus a full-stop landing at the end of the flight.

While working the pattern over St. Anthony, my uncle allowed me to make mistakes and walk me through the high workload of flying a high-performance, complex aircraft. We went through a flow (which I will study up on), as well as the GUMPS (Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Propeller, Straps) checklist necessary for complex aircraft. It'll still take some getting used to, so I hope we can do another flight while I'm staying in Idaho...

After the fourth landing, we taxied back to the hangar, shut the engine down, did our post-flight and secured the aircraft. After getting back to Ashton, my uncle signed my logbook and I have officially logged my first flight in a complex aircraft, giving me a head-start towards fulfilling the requirements (that were recently revised!) towards a commercial rating! It's shame though that my uncle's Mooney M20F is technically not a high-performance airplane (like some later Mooney models) because it's engine output is at 200 horsepower and it needs to be above 200 in order to be considered "high-performance;" I'll have to get a high-performance endorsement flying in an airplane that is classified as such elsewhere somewhere down the line!