GFK-BJI-PKD-GFK Solo Cross Country

So I did the typical Grand Forks, ND to Bemidji, MN to Park Rapids, MN and back to Grand Forks cross-country flight. I had lots of fun, even though I couldn't enjoy the Minnesotan scenery as I would normally be able to. It was really hazey outside and visibility was probably down to 4 miles. I did one landing at Bemidji, one at Park Rapids, and five at Grand Forks. All of them were pretty good. The last cross-country flight I went on my landings back at Grand Forks were horrible. I had a pretty big gusty crosswind that made it difficult.

Mosquitos are out again in Grand Forks! For some reason they decided to put a sewage treatment plant near the airport. In addition to it really stinking, mosquitos love to breed there. Consequently, when the cockpit door swings open swarms of blood-hungry mosquitos fly in as if I opened up a flood gate. I have about 6 mosquito bites on my right now. *UGH!!!*

My flight training is coming along. I took a break for a very short while, but I'm getting back on track. I have to finish about one more hour of night time and cross-country time in order for me to advance to my first 221 stage-check. After that every lesson is in the Frasca sim to prepare me for the last stage-check, which will also be in a sim.

Grand Forks SCCA Autocross

So I autocrossed my 2000 Honda Civic Si with the SCCA Badlands Chapter on Saturday. I bought a Snell M-2000 helmet approved by the SCCA racing rules. It's an open-faced helmet, which I wanted specifically because closed-face helmets turn into mini-saunas on hot days. It turned out to be 95 degrees and humid that day. The Honda Civic Si is a great autocross car. It's handling is very nimble with only moderate understeer and has a decent amount of power for longer straightaways, but has difficulty pulling hard out of low-speed sharp turns. The only problem is you have to rev it to 5500 RPMs all the way through 8000 RPMs to get it to pull hard. Below 5500 RPMs there is hardly any torque. It has a high-revving 1.6 liter 4-cylinder engine that puts out 160HP. That's 100 HP per cylinder! Pretty efficient engine.

The winner of the autocross event (against all classes) was a race-prepared BMW M3. A race-prepared Mazda Miata placed second. Someday I will own an E30 or E36 BMW M3.

I made a really cool camera mount so I could video-tape my performance. I went to Lowe's to buy all the hardware parts. It turned out to work really well. I built the thing so solid - it will NOT move even in violent turns and slalom runs. Click here for the video!