Pilot Life: A Quick Night Flight in My Uncle's Mooney (Not Logged)

I am just having a ball hanging out with my relatives! After a day well-spent doing fun things in the vicinity of Ashton, my uncle and I along with two relatives from my aunt's family went up for a quick night flight around Fremont County in the trusty Mooney M20. On the drive to St. Anthony, I called the automated weather service out of the Rexburg Airport (which happens to be the nearest airport with such service as St. Anthony doesn't have one) to check the weather an wind conditions for the general vicinity; my uncle and I verified that conditions were ideal. Once we got to the hangar, we opened it up and I walked around the plane with my uncle for the pre-flight check. Afterwards, my uncle grabbed a tow bar and hooked it up to the Mooney and pulled the plane out of the hangar.

My uncle pulling his Mooney M20F Executive (N9716M) out of the hangar for the quick hop.

Once the plane was out on the tarmac, we all hopped in; I took my position in the front right seat ready to act as a crew member while my uncle handled the radios and more crucial aspects of aircraft operations. Once again, I did not log any flight time on tonight's flight because the Mooney is a high-performance complex aircraft and I still do not have my private pilot's license yet. Like a pro, my uncle went through the start-up procedure and got the engine turning in no time at all; the years of experience really showed! My uncle handled the taxiing because his rudder controls had brakes; he also handled the radio calls as it was getting dark outside and he is the most experienced pilot out of the two of us. We began taxiing and it was a quick taxi because we were taking off on Runway 22, which was practically right by uncle's hangar. We stopped short of the runway and my uncle quickly did the run-ups for his Mooney; again, his experience really showed because he went through the procedure swiftly.

Once run-ups were complete, my uncle made a radio call on the St. Anthony Airport CTAF indicating that we were entering runway 22 and departing. Once the Mooney was lined up on the runway, my uncle handed me controls; now I was in charge of handling the throttles and getting us airborne while my uncle monitored the instruments. I advanced the throttles forward the plane started rolling. Once we reached rotating speed, my uncle called for rotation and I pulled back on the yoke and we were airborne. Once verified that we had a positive rate of climb, my uncle pulled the gear lever to retract the landing gears and we were off. We didn't climb too as this was going to be a local flight. We turned north towards Ashton to buzz the town as well as my uncle's house! Once we were on heading, my uncle called for trim adjustment to maintain altitude, which I obliged. While I may not have been able to log the hours, I still thoroughly enjoyed acting as a competent and reliable crew member in assisting my uncle in his duties as pilot-in-command, especially since we had one really young passenger and his father in the back seat (both flying in a general aviation aircraft for the first time, I might add!).

As we approached Ashton, my uncle again assumed control of the Mooney as he wanted to buzz over Ashton's Main Street as well as his home and we had to descend a little bit to get a better view. Once we made our pass, my uncle handed back the controls to me and instructed me to fly us back to St. Anthony, which I did. It only takes 15 minutes to drive between Ashton and St. Anthony; flying between the two cities takes a mere minutes! And in no time at all, St. Anthony was in view. My uncle made a radio call on the CTAF to inform any traffic in the area that we were coming. As we descended and lined up for a touch-and-go on Runway 22, another aircraft called into the frequency saying they were to south inbound for a full-stop; it was an ATEC 321 Faeta, a super-light sport aircraft. My uncle and I know the owners of the plane really well. My uncle without missing a beat, got on the radio and told the aircraft "negative the pattern is full!" We had a laugh with that one!

ATEC 321 Faeta (N1014C), the aircraft we were competing with for airspace!

My uncle lowered the flaps as needed, adjusted the propeller pitch, and lowered the landing gear as he helped me bring the Mooney in for a landing. We touched down rather hard... Not my best landing, but didn't expect it to be so since I haven't flown in a while and I'm not accustomed to the handling characteristics of the Mooney! We throttled forward and got back in the air again. At this point, I handed control to my uncle as he would bring us in for a full-stop landing. After departing on Runway 22, my uncle turned the plane around and made a landing on Runway 4 (the reciprocal heading for Runway 22). He taxied us off the runway and right back to the hangar. My uncle shut the engine down after lining up the plane for an easy push-back to the hangar and the flight was done. The Faeta that we were sharing the pattern with touched down behind us soon after.

While I didn't log any time tonight, my uncle and I did accomplish something: We introduced two people to the world of general aviation. I consider it an unwritten rule or perhaps an obligation we pilots have in order to help generate interest in aviation and introduce people to the industry.