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| Flying with all seats filled in N5174E, a first for me! |
After picking up my friends at the agreed upon place we'd meet, I took them over to the hangar, where I did the pre-flight. After that, I pulled the plane out and got everyone on board and did a passenger briefing before starting up the engine. I picked up the current ATIS information before calling up Salem Ground and requested taxi clearance, which I promptly got. I taxied us over to the run-up by Runway 34 and did my before-takeoff checks; everything looked good, so I called up tower and told them we were ready to go. Cleared for takeoff on Runway 34 with a left-crosswind departure to the west, I got us airborne and pointed the nose towards Newport. The plan was to fly the Oregon coast, but the weather there would say otherwise. On the way, Amy took a selfie!
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| Obligatory selfie while airborne with good friends Amy Chirinos, Hannah Taylor, and Ammon Teubner! (Photo credit: Amy Chirinos) |
I invited Amy to take the controls and try her hand at flying the airplane under my supervision. As we traversed the mountains separating the valley from the coast, it became apparent that there was some cloud coverage all along the shoreline; a quick listen to the Newport AWOS confirmed what seemed to be not-so-ideal conditions to fly the coast northward; I ended up making the decision to scrub the second intended leg of the flight and proceed back to Salem after doing a landing in Newport. We made an uneventful landing on Runway 34 there after overflying the city and making a standard pattern entry. I also made the landing a full-stop and taxied to the ramp so my passengers could switch seats.
After my passengers rotated seats, I taxied us out for departure. After doing a quick run-up, I got us airborne off Runway 34 and proceeded back to the northeast towards Salem. Once again, we traversed over the terrain while staying out of the clouds that lingered over the coastal area. Eventually, we got back into the Willamette Valley and clear skies, a rather stark contrast! From there, I invited Ammon, who was now in the co-pilot seat to take the controls and try flying the airplane, again under my supervision. I also tuned in to the Salem ATIS to get the weather there. We kept going southeast until we were around Millersburg before contacting Salem Tower, where I requested a straight-in approach for Runway 34.
About four miles out, Tower came back on and asked if I'd be interested in side-stepping over to Runway 31. I accepted the new clearance and got quickly established on a three mile final for Runway 31. After making an uneventful landing, I requested taxi over to the fuel pumps, where I topped off the tanks as part of my general housekeeping and courtesy to the Valley Flyers flight club. Amy and Hannah walked back to the hangar while Ammon and I hopped back in the plane and taxied over there, where we wasted no time in towing the plane into the hangar after engine shut-down because another one of the flying club's Cessna 172s was about to start their engine!
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| Namely, THIS Cessna 172, N515ED! |
After we got our Cessna 172 back in the hangar, my passengers and I cleaned the plane, namely on the front windscreen and the leading edges of the wings and struts as they accumulated a nice (not to mention, disgusting!) bug collection! After we were done, Ammon got another selfie of us with the airplane!
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| After getting back to Salem! Making memories like this have been the highlight of my so far insignificant flying career thus far. (Photo credit: Ammon Teubner) |
After clearing out all my equipment from the plane, we closed up the hangar and headed out. I dropped off Amy, Hannah, and Ammon where I met up with them before going our separate ways. Even though today's flight didn't go according to plan, we still had a good time enjoying each others' company and it was a positive note for me to end the week on. Thanks for flying with me guys!
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