On Sunday June 8th I did my first flight with another pilot that is not a certified instructor. Larry earned his PPL in 2010 and is on the final leg of his IFR certification. He recently passed his written test and is working on finishing up his PIC time in order to be eligible for his checkride. I’m just starting my IFR training and need PIC time and also need to log more simulated instrument time. For this flight Larry served as PIC for being ultimately responsible for the safety of the flight and I was able to log PIC time because I was the sole manipulator of the flight controls. We were both able to log just over 3 hours of flight time and split the cost of the flight.
I definitely appreciated that Larry was ok with serving as safety pilot the entire flight and allowing me to fly the aircraft and get more experience flying in simulated instrument conditions. It was also good to have a pilot who was further than I was in his instrument training to give me additional pointers or feedback while we were flying.
Although I was under the hood majority of the flight, the video footage is pretty spectacular. When flying into Muskegon we had to fly out a couple miles over Lake Michigan for the final approach fix.
Soon after I take off from Muskegon and we were straight and level we turned off the cameras to conserve the battery. Unfortunately, when we went to turn the cameras back on the forward facing camera switched modes to photo mode and Larry just ended up getting an awesome selfie overflying a windmill farm. I then accidentally took a selfie when we were shutting down and putting the plane away when I thought I was turning off the video.
The good news is that the footage over the lake was preserved and that’s the main thing worth checking out. That footage starts around the 5 minute mark.
KMKG – Muskegon Airport
Muskegon Airport is one of my favorite airports because it is right on Lake Michigan. Whenever you head to this airport you are guaranteed a great view and there is also a great little restaurant inside.
Approach: RNAV (GPS) RWY 6
Received vectors to WEGUN (FAF)
Touch and go.
KMBS – Saginaw Airport
This was my second time to Saginaw Airport, the first time was during my long cross country solo when I was working towards my PPL. I remember flying in a Cessna 152 doing all of my navigation by landmarks and being concerned that I wouldn’t recognize the airport. With the Garmin 430 GPS in the Piper Warrior that really wasn’t a concern.
Approach: RNAV (GPS) RWY 5
Started the approach at WERDO.
KFPK – Charlotte Airport
The final destination was our home base of Charlotte Airport.
Approach: RNAV (GPS) RWY 20
I flew my first circling approach to this runway and completely blew it. I had to go around and then just flew a standard traffic pattern to land on RWY 2.
