Pilot Life: Taking My Friend, Maricella Flying!

Just for the record, my former-Mission President from my days in Japan put me up to this one! I offered to take my friend Maricella, a former-Sister missionary for the LDS Church I knew from when I was spending time in Japan flying. We were originally going to go on Saturday afternoon/evening, but the winds were atrociously gusty and there were reports of turbulence all over the valley at various altitudes so I elected to play it safe and reschedule the outing to today. The weather was fine so I proceeded with today's flight. Upon arrival at the airport, I immediately did the pre-flight inspection for the airplane. Once that was done, we hopped in, closed the canopy, and I got the engine started.

Today's flight was on N968CT.

Winds were favoring Runway 12, so I taxied us to the far end of the airport and I did my engine run-ups there. Once run-ups were complete, I held short of the runway momentarily to visually clear the final approach and departure ends. I then taxied onto the runway, began takeoff roll, and we were airborne. I made a right-crosswind departure and we headed southbound towards Payson and Santaquin. My passenger enjoyed the view of the valley from the airplane.

We just flew around the Utah Valley taking in the sights and my passenger got some pictures on her smart phone. And once again, I utilized ForeFlight on my iPad hooked up to the plane's Stratus to get real-time flight information. Once we were over Santaquin, I executed a rapid descent to get set up for turns around a point around the Payson LDS Temple and allow for my passenger to get some more pictures. Once that maneuver was complete, we headed back to Spanish Fork so I could get some landing practice in.

I tuned into the AWOS frequency and noted that the winds have changed to favor Runway 30. So I set up to enter the left-downwind for Runway 30. I got three circuits (two touch-and-go landings plus a full-stop landing) in the pattern before we called it quits, all while keeping an eye out for other traffic in the pattern (there were a few aircraft in the traffic pattern at the time). I executed three flawless landings! On my third, full-stop landing, I came in a little high, so I executed a slip-to-landing to bleed off that excess altitude (it seems like I do that a lot in N968CT!).

We ended up sharing the Spanish Fork traffic pattern with this Cessna 172 (N736ML)!

After rolling out on landing, I vacated the runway at the next available taxiway. After clearing out and going through my routine checklists, I taxied us back to the ramp and hangar. Once I parked the plane, I went through my shut-down procedures and shut the engine down, signifying another successful flight completed! After that, we took a selfie!

Obligatory selfie after finishing the flight!
(Photo credit: Maricella Shaver, my lovely passenger!)

We then popped open the canopy, hopped out, and secured the airplane for the next person flying it. And today's flight was a good way to start the week after Spring Break!