Theres a first time for everything.
I always told myself that getting my pilot license was for more that just recreational flying. I think up until this point, over 7 years since getting my certificate, I’ve never done anything but recreational flying. My flights were mostly to keep my skills sharp with touch and go’s at the airport, an occasional $300 hamburger, or tooling around in the skywith nothing to do. Once I even made it to 14,000 feet in a 172! My flying was fulfilling my addition to aviation, but I’ve never flown with real purpose and intent for a practical reason. Well, all that changed today.
Just before EAA’s Airventure 2025 I got a call from my Uncle. He had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Good news is that he caught it so early that he’s been given a 100% survival rate! He’s in the middle of chemotherapy treatment and the only thing he can think about is getting a new computer, thus the phone call.
Having a background in IT usually gets me calls like this from nearly every family member who has my number. BUT, for my favorite uncle I was up to the task without hesitation. So, last week I picked up a new to him computer, got the additional parts I needed, and setup the computer. With it ready to go, I now had a logistics problem. My uncle lives east of Payson, Arizona and I live in North Phoenix. Unfortunately, theres no direct route to Payson from Phoenix and driving to his house is a two and a half hour endeavor. Since I needed to transfer his data from the old computer to the new I had to go to him.
I was in the middle of planning my drive out there when I suddenly rememberd I have a plane! I made a quick call to my Uncle to see if he could pick me up at the airport and it turned out he could! His next chemo treatment was the upcoming Friday and right now he was feeling well enough to drive. I quickly pivoted to flight planning and it turned out the weather was perfect. I only had to worry about one thing, density altitude.
Since getting Nugget, our 1975 Piper Archer, I’ve been struggling with the take off performance charts. They stop at 7000 feet! Today, the density altitude would be well over that so when I I woke up at 5:30 AM, before my 6 AM alarm, and decided go early so I could get back to the airport as early as possible for my return flight. The trip there was beautiful with the rising sun casting incredible shadows across the rugged terrain. Literally one of my favorite times to fly.
Payson was stunning and cool when I stepped out of the cockpit. I quickly tied up the plane and my Uncle picked me up just a few minutes after arrival. I was able to quickly transfer his data and get the new computer setup, putting us back at the airport around 9:35 AM. This was good since Payson was getting HOT. By the time I checked the airport weather before take off the density altitude was higher than I anticipated at 7800 feet!
Thankfully I was prepared. Knowing that the Archer performance charts were at max gross weight all I needed to do was be light. Taking off I only had 19 of my 50 gallons of fuel capacity. I knew I could climb out without issue, I just didn’t know how well. To my surprise, it was quite well! Doing a calm cool climb I was pulling away from the ground at 400-500 feet per minute. WAY better than that one time I almost killed myself here, forgetting the flaps on take off… Video on that here, WORTH A WATCH!
The flight home was uneventful with a little bit of turbulence going over the mountain ridge, which was expected. But as I was cruising at 8500 feet it suddenly dawned on me, this was the first time I’ve used the plane for a practical purpose! I realized that by flying to Payson instead of driving I took a 5+ hour round trip drive into a one hour flight. I even spent less money on fuel than driving my Suburban all the way out there. FINALLY! I’ll be able to justify buying a plane to my wife!
All jokes aside, it is exciting to do something practical and intentional with the plane. It’s got me thinking of other things I could do for good. I want to do so much more with Nugget. I know our non profit flight school is coming, but until then I was thinking of other flights with a purpose like flying blood, Angle Flights, and even discovery flights.
Actually, thinking about it a little harder, I went on an adventure with Pilots to the Rescue a while back. They’re an incredible organization based in New York that saves animals on a nearly daily basis. I was happy to be apart of it, but I think I took the good they were doing for granted at the time. Now I’m excited to see what I can do with aviation instead of what aviation can do for me. Sure I’ll still get my fix flying recreationally, but doing something practical and useful scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.
Make sure to check out our video on Pilots To The Rescue. It’s actually really fun!
