Didn’t sleep again last night, it’s getting quite annoying now. Got up at 7AM, began the drive to Staverton. By the time I got to the M5 I realised I’d forgotten my wallet. Drove back, picked that up and then had another go. Arrived just after half eight, Captain James was already there and had fuelled up G-OJAN.

After a short briefing about manifold pressures we got in the helicopter. I’d already grabbed a cushion and plugged in my new headset. I was great, it was silent. Went through the start-up check-list and fired her up. James taxied across the runway and took it up to three hundred feet, I then took over. We did quite a bit of upper air work, climbs, descents, climbing and descending turns. I then did a auto-rotation and an approach back to the airfield, brought it right down to 300 feet and then got it into a hover.

Then the fun started. Did lots of hover practice. Then did landing from a hover and taking off again. Spent the next twenty minutes or so taking off, crossing the airfield, bringing it back to a hover and then landing again. Finally flew it back to the hanger and parked it on the grass outside. Great fun. So apart from transitions which I briefly did today that’s everything for flying. So technically I could steal an R22 and fly it about. I would get lost of course as we haven’t covered navigation yet. So I clocked up 1.4 hours today (Don’t ask how much). I’m up to 6.5 hours total, so about 15 from going solo. Really pleased with my progress. Just in the back of my mind I know how much it’s costing, and how pretty much bloody useless a skill it is. Still it’s fun.

Drove home. Started work. Today mainly it was resolving code and building data, so fairly dull. Walked Sasha, Dillon refused to wear his harness. Did more work.

Early evening I did something I haven’t done in years. I went to a spin class. It was with Laverne and was forty-five minutes. That knackered me out, actually really enjoyed it, will be going again. Traffic was awful.

Came back and did a bit more work. Now the in game hud is all in the middle of the screen. Apart from that, all looks pretty good.

Finally sat down and ate. It’s torture porn night, probably go for something light.