Pilot Life: Taking My Friend, Josh Flying!

I haven't done one of these flights in a while, but I had the opportunity to take a friend up flying again, starting with my good friend Josh as today was his day off. Better yet, I got to reunite with a plane I haven't flown in for a few months, the Cessna 172 I've built a good chunk of my total flight time in! After my uncle sold his 172 to the Valley Flyers flight club, they got to work on it to prepare it for club use. In addition to the other club aircraft, we still have access to my uncle's old plane, which is nice because it's the plane I've been used to the most since I've flown it a lot.

I still have access to N5174E (which I refer to as my "ex-girlfriend!") as part of the deal in joining the Valley Flyers, so I got to fly her again today!

After picking up Josh and arriving at the airport, it was straight to the hangar where the plane was kept and I did my pre-flight. After pulling the plane out, we hopped in, got the engine started, and I picked up the current ATIS information. I called up Salem Ground and picked up our taxi clearance to Runway 34 and the run-up area. As per the usual, I taxied to the run-up area and did my engine runs and checks; everything looked good, so I called up Salem Tower and informed them we were ready for takeoff. Tower asked us to hold short of Runway 34 for departing traffic on Runway 31. Soon we were cleared for takeoff and I got us airborne and turned out to the west.

Obligatory selfie en route to McMinnville!
(Photo credit: Josh Elliott, my passenger and good friend!)

The original plan was to head out to the coast and take in the view, but the weather out there was crap. So we headed to McMinnville to practice some landing. I picked up the AWOS information and made my CTAF radio calls and entered the left-downwind for Runway 22. It was a little turbulent all throughout, but nothing I couldn't handle. I did a touch-and-go, followed by a stop-and-go, and one last touch-and-go landing on Runway 22 before heading back to Salem.

En route, I picked up the updated ATIS information again; winds shifted from favoring Runways 31 and 34 to being variable, so it was no surprise that Salem Tower instructed me to make a straight-in approach on Runway 16 when I called them up. After an uneventful landing, I taxied off the runway; I was intending to pick up fuel, but Salem Ground informed me that the fuel pumps were out of service, so I just taxied the plane back to the hangar. I shut the engine down, pushed the plane back into the hangar, and did my post-flight checks before closing up shop. My passenger, Josh had a good time.

It sure was nice to break the monotony of flight training and taking someone up for fun again!