Pilot Life: A Quick Cross-Country in the Mooney!

After taking the evening off yesterday, my uncle Sam and I hopped back in the Mooney and we embarked on a quick, round-robin cross-country flight up north to West Yellowstone, Montana and back! This was by far one of the fastest cross-country flights I've ever flown! Then again, that shouldn't surprise me since the Mooney is one fast son of gun!

This time, we logged a solid hour in N9716M!

After arriving at the airport, we pulled the plane out of the hangar and towed it over to the fuel pumps. My uncle added fuel to each wing tank while I did the pre-flight walk-around. Afterwards, we hopped in and got the engine started. We did the run-ups at the same spot before taxiing over to the runway. We got on Runway 22, started takeoff roll, and we were airborne. After a left crosswind turn, we headed north towards West Yellowstone and continued to climb out to our cruise altitude.

As we flew northward, my uncle taught me proper engine management for a complex aircraft on a cross-country and walked me through much of it. Eventually, the runway for Yellowstone Airport came into view so we started descending down to pattern altitude; again, a quick cross-country! Winds were favoring Runway 19 according to the AWOS and we were already on an extended left downwind so we just entered the traffic pattern that way. Once again, I went through the flow process of getting the complex airplane configured for landing. I first pulled the power and engine manifold pressure back to slow down. I then extended the gear and flaps soon after. I then went through the mental GUMPS checklist during the base turn and final approach.

After making a decent touchdown on Runway 19, I advanced the throttles once again and we got airborne, completing the touch-and-go landing. After cleaning up and configuring the airplane yet again, we climbed out on a straight-out departure south back towards St. Anthony. It usually takes a little over an hour or so to get to West Yellowstone, Montana by car; my uncle and I did it in 30 minutes in the good old Mooney!

We flew southbound and made a quick detour by buzzing over Ashton before continuing on to St. Anthony, where we would land to complete the flight. Airport in sight, we entered the left downwind for Runway 4 and I once again, went through the same process in preparing the complex aircraft for landing configuration; and I had to do it fast too, since St. Anthony Airport is much smaller than what I'm used to. According to my uncle, I didn't do too bad. After going through the GUMPS checks, during the pattern leg, we made a successful touchdown on Runway 4 and rolled out to the end, since this airport doesn't have parallel taxiways.

After clearing the runway, we taxied back to the hangar and shut the engine down. Following post-flight procedures, we rolled the Mooney back into the hangar and secured it for the night and drove back up to Ashton, where we once again filled out our respective logbooks, and getting my uncle's signature for this evening's cross-country flight. We had a good time!