So woke up a bit late, fed everyone and got coffee. Worked on adding GPU markers for a few hours. Ate chicken and a tomato and then drove up to Staverton. James was back. It was his first flight in five weeks, so more rusty than I was. I know I had apprehensions, but his attitude to everything was fine, I felt quite safe.

Oddly I didn’t really need to as I actually did 99% of the flying. Only showing me a few additional exercises. I did all the radio calls and even parked it back at the hanger. It was great, took off to the North west. Got just outside the ATZ, switched to Gloucester control and called out, “Helicopter golf Oscar Juliette alpha November, listening out to the north west, request basic service”. Which was granted. It was only then I realised I said ‘Listening’ and not ‘Looking’, they knew what I meant. But it does seem silly when you have a dirty great windscreen out in front of you that you would be ‘listening out’ rather than ‘looking’.

We did an auto, then an off airfield landing and finally a circuit. I was really pleased there was a bit of a breeze as well, but still all in control. Getting close to that solo, really must read that bloody air law book.

Drove back, traffic was kind. Went to the gym, did Pump, then a session with Laverne. Then back to work, needed to make up the hours, now it’s just gone eleven. Time for pizza and a beer.

Oh, mother is coming up tomorrow. That’ll be fun. Actually it won’t. I think I’ll set up the audio recorded for that one and see how often she mentions money.