Pilot Life: Shooting Approaches at Corvallis

Well, today's original plan didn't go as expected due to smoke from wildfires down south, but we still got some worthwhile flying in today. The original plan was head south and shoot practice instrument approaches in Corvallis, Eugene, and do a round-robin at Roseburg, but smoke from all the wildfires happening in southern Oregon and northern California ended up confining us to stay rather local. Either way, my uncle and I got the practice we wanted to get.

Another round of approaches in N5174E!

After the pre-flight, engine start-up and run-ups, we took off from Runway 34 at Albany and departed to the north to get set up for the RNAV 17 approach into Corvallis. My uncle went under the hood and I maintained vigil looking for other aircraft as his safety pilot. My uncle shot the approaches pretty well and we did four laps doing the RNAV 17 flying the missed-approach profile each time; my uncle logged three of them, and I logged the fourth one, allowing both of us to act as each other's safety pilot and getting some hood time. We also learned how to work the Garmin 430 GPS my uncle has in his plane that we've been using for all the approaches we've been shooting a little more effectively. After the fourth approach, we returned to Albany, where we landed, topped off the fuel tanks, and secured the airplane in my uncle's hangar, calling it a morning well-spent.