Pilot Life: Flying Club Checkout Flight

So the flying club known as Valley Flyers based in Salem is the organization that my uncle sold his Cessna 172 to. As part of the arrangement and deal, my uncle and I received membership to the flight club with certain fees and dues waived for the next twelve months, meaning that all we have to pay for are the hourly rental rates on the planes and any instructor time. The Valley Flyers club has a fleet of three Cessna 172s (two M-models plus my uncle's N-model), a Piper Cherokee, and a Cessna 182 Skylane, something I have my eyes on as I intend to get a high-performance endorsement in that plane. As for today, I did a club checkout flight with one of the instructors of the club in one of the M-model Skyhawks, which was personally exciting because I'm now adding another variant of the Skyhawk family to my logbook.

Doing a club checkout flight in a Cessna 172M Skyhawk (N12382), one of the oldest planes in the Valley Flyers fleet. After the N-model, this is the second variant of the Skyhawk family to be added to my repertoire!

My instructor and I got together at the hangars where the club aircraft are stored and we went over things ranging from club rules and policies before doing the pre-flight and walk-around. We pulled the airplane out of the hangar, hopped in, and got the engine started. We picked up the current ATIS information before calling up Salem Ground to pick up taxi clearance. We taxied out to the run-up pad by Runway 34 and did the run-ups. After that, I called up Salem tower and told them we were ready for departure, and we got our takeoff clearance. We got airborne and turned out to the east and cleared the Class Delta airspace.

Once leveled off, I executed a clearing turn before my instructor for the day put me through a few basic VFR maneuvers, which included steep turns, slow flight, a power-off stall, and simulated engine-out with a simulated emergency landing. After that, we headed to the southwest a little bit before turning back towards Salem; the ATIS information changed while we were out so we got the latest weather information before calling up tower, to which I requested a straight-in for Runway 31. I requested the option because my instructor was going to evaluate my landing before determining if I needed to practice a few or not. Despite having not flown a Cessna 172 since mid-March, I absolutely nailed the landing, so we went full-stop as my instructor was pleased with the landing!

We cleared off the runway and got our taxi instructions back to the ramp. We taxied over to the fuel pumps to top off the tanks before putting the airplane back in the club hangar and did a quick debrief. After my instructor signed off my logbook and officially checking me out to satisfy insurance purposes and club rules, we were done and went our separate ways.

Special thanks to my instructor, Chris for getting me checked out with the flight club! I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my flying, not mention flying out locally from my current hometown airport!