There's no better way to spend a Friday night than hopping in a private airplane and flying somewhere for dinner, and that's exactly what I did with my parents! We flew down to Cottage Grove and ate at the Village Inn restaurant, an area and place I'm well-acquainted with on this outing. But the biggest highlight for me personally has to be the fact that this flight was the first time I had my mother along as a passenger!
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| Flying my parents in N5174E! |
After arriving at the hangar, I did my pre-flight before pulling the plane out of the hangar. We hopped in and I got the engine started before taxiing out to Runway 34. After doing run-ups, we got airborne and I flew us out of the Albany-area on the left-downwind. Because I had some "precious cargo" with me, I picked up VFR Flight Following from Cascade Approach. Other than that, it was a very routine and uneventful flight down to the hilly areas surrounding Cottage Grove. With the Cottage Grove area soon coming into view, I cancelled VFR Flight Following with Cascade Approach over Creswell and entered the right-downwind (because of terrain!) for Runway 33 and made a successful landing. After landing, I taxied over to the ramp area by the Oregon Aviation Historical Society museum and parked the plane. After post-flight and securing the plane, we walked a half-mile to the Vintage Inn restaurant and had an enjoyable, albeit longer-than-planned dinner.
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My mother and I in Cottage Grove just after arriving with the last rays of light!
(Photo credit goes to my dad!) |
After we were done with dinner, we walked back to the airport and got out of Cottage Grove; by then it was well-past sunset, which means I was logging night hours on this short cross-country leg! As usual, a quick but thorough pre-flight, engine-start, run-ups, and we were airborne off Runway 33 for a straight-out departure to the north. Once clear of the hills and with adequate altitude between us and the ground, I contacted Cascade Approach again and picked up VFR Flight Following. With ADS-B on my iPad and a clear night sky surrounding us, it was easy to keep an eye out for other traffic; in this case, the only traffic we saw were some regional airliner flights going into Eugene. After a quick hop, Albany came into view so I signed-off with Cascade Approach and made an uneventful straight-in landing on Runway 34.
Foregoing fuel, I taxied the plane straight back to the hangar and put the airplane away. After a quick post-flight, we drove home and called it a night. Outings like this are one of my favorite things to do in a General Aviation aircraft and I'm glad I got share this one with my parents!
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