Woke up at the crack of dawn, well it was just before 7:30. Let the dogs out, got breakfast and a coffee. Cruised porn (okay, email, FB, weather). Got up and then trundled up the M5. I was at Staverton airport by 9AM. Popped in the Transair shop, very small. Met up with Captain James, we had a small chat about power levels, inches of mercury (manifold pressure) and attitude (that’s where it’s pointing, not that I’m a cunt). We jumped in the R22 (after I got my cushion). I ran through the check-list and fired her up (is it a she?). James taxied to the heli-pad and then started off on a shallow ascent. At 1000ft I took the cyclic and the pedals. We then did a short circuit around at different airspeeds. I was on top of the flap-back this time and had no problems changing attitudes and airspeeds. I then turned back to the airport and entered a shallow descent. James took over the last 500ft. We then stopped in the circle at the end of the runway. It was hover time! I took the cyclic and the pedals, a couple of wobbles and then I just stayed there. Started playing around a bit, moved around the circle and then got back to the centre of it. I then took over the collective and started varying the heights as well. So that was it, I was in control of everything, I didn’t flip it over, I didn’t whack the tail in the ground and didn’t whack the rotor into the tail boom. Oddly when I turned up there, all thoughts of mast bumping, vortex rings and low rpm stalls vanished. I never felt nervous of frightened at any point. Even when I was solely in control of the whole thing I felt entirely comfortable. It’s no different really to driving a car, except it’s in three dimensions. I spent about half hour practising hovering and landing. I then headed down the runway and James parked it back at the hanger. I was very pleased with my progress. I talked to James about using the simulator, he said, “Whatever you’re doing keep it up it’s working. Even if it chops off a couple of hours that’s going to save you six hundred quid.” So the X-Plane practice has certainly paid off. I’ll try and continue an hour a day on that. If anything actually, the real thing is slightly easier to hover than the simulator, probably because you get a sense of perspective. Next time we are doing ascents and descents at different power levels. It’s going to be about three weeks though as we are off on holiday, still I have to read up on air law as in about 17 hours I need to fly solo. Captain James was pleased at my progress and certainly so was I.

Drove back down the M5, started work at 11:30. Finally got the assets for something I needed to get on with, so got on with that. Work all the way through to 7. Got a hell of a lot done really. Went out for a run, then came back and did even more work.

So good day all in all. Once again I came back smiling, that’s the important thing. And it was cracking weather, flying just above the haze was amazing. I must stop looking at frighteningly expensive Bose headsets.

Started fairly early this morning, well took Sasha to daycare at 6:30, but started work early. Lots to work on, lots to fix. Did some major changes, may undo them yet. Need to think on them. Captain James phoned and moved my flight time earlier, as the Friday weather is supposed to be bad. Weather looks good tomorrow.

Went to the hygienist and had my teeth scraped and jet washed, that’s it there for another twelve months. Came back and picked Sasha up. Came back home and Dillon had left a little ‘present’.

Finished off work, then went for a run. Came back and did my hours flying, going well. Practised hovering, transitions and changing attitudes. See how well it pays off tomorrow.

So started off fixing alignment on a 64 bit allocator. Then probably spent about the next five errors searching for a GPU hang. Found it in the end using a bit of know how and hand disassembling the render list. That was fun. Many more things like that to come no doubt. Skipped lunch as I wanted to clock up a couple of extra hours.

Went for a run, had a shower, then plugged in my new pedals…I got the Cessna one’s which okay aren’t the same as an R22 but they are as good as I’m going to get. Got them set up on the iMac with XPlane 10. Woohoo, after I stopped the wheelie chair from going backwards they were great. Stops me from cocking up the collective control. I did an hour of hovering and flying, almost beginning to get the hang of it. Read about half the pilot book last night, will do a bit more tonight. Looking forward to the next lesson now, hopefully the simulator time will all pay off.

Work was a bit of a pain as I was waiting around for data to build and then moved on to something else. Mind you the ‘something else’ is pretty good, so no real complaints there.

Walked the dogs, very well behaved. Went to combat, good fun.

Came back, did some more work, then fired up x-plane 10. Still don’t have my peddles yet, but I’m now beginning to hover, and recover from bad situations. I think it’s going to be much easier when I get the peddles as I keep moving the collective at the moment when moving the torque pedals as it’s on the same stick. So the time is slowly paying off, I’ll try and get an hour a day in, split between hovering and normal flight. Got lots of complex books to read as well. May have an early night tonight and do some reading.