Pilot Life: Taking My Friend, Jordan Flying!

Last night while running an errand, I ran into a good friend of mine of six years back from my days in Japan. It ended up being a next-to last-minute arrangement, but I offered to take Jordan, a former mission companion flying today and he gladly accepted my invitation! Once again however, the weather wasn't what I wanted it to be this morning so all we did today was fly a few laps around the pattern. After meeting up at the airport, we hung around for a little bit to kind of assess the weather and the cloud layer we had. It was at this point that I made the decision to stay in the pattern before heading out to the plane to get the pre-flight started. Compared to last month, it's been a lot colder this month (still mild compared to most winters), so we had to dry off the airplane of the condensation build-up on the fuselage and critical surface areas to prevent icing. Afterwards, I unhooked the tie-down chains and towed the plane over to the fuel pumps with the tow bar and added fuel to the wing tanks.

Once again, I took the good ol' Piper Cherokee (N7625F) for this flight!

After completing the refueling, we delayed hopping in to allow two airplanes that were doing their run-ups. Once the planes were out of the way, we hopped in and I got the engine started. I taxied us a short ways and did the engine run-ups. Nothing concerning to note so I continued the taxi over to the runway, where I held short for two aircraft currently in the pattern.

Selfie before beginning taxiing!
(Photo credit: Jordan Larkin, my old mission companion back from our days as twenty-something year old missionaries in Japan!)

Once the runway was clear, I taxied onto it and lined up and throttled forward for takeoff roll and we got airborne. From here, it was four laps total in the traffic pattern because areas to the south, east, and west looked to have rather low cloud ceilings. I did four touch-and-go landings; my first wasn't great because I veered to the left just before touchdown. My second landing was the best as I was able to keep it on center line. My third and fourth landings were so-so, as my passenger would put it!

After the fourth landing, I cleared the runway at the next available taxiway and I taxied us back to the ramp before shutting the engine down and calling it another successful, albeit short flight. And it was great to catch up with a friend whom I haven't seen in a while!