So yesterday was mainly taken up by an awful lot of work. Walked dogs and never saw another one on the entire walk. Went to pump, then went to the pub with my sister. I had a rather bland curry. Drank beer, good company, good fun.

Today I was supposed to do a home check for a cat but she never phoned back. Picked up some crickets, walked into town. Picked up some brown paper to send heli back. Visited mother, she’s still alive.

Came back and did the accounts. Looked at the spare part that arrived (this is the second one) and it was actually the correct size. So I repaired the helicopter. The mass confusion all comes about as the CP3 shares a lot of parts with the old model CP2, but none of them with the new model CP2 which is discontinued. And just for amusement they all share the same part numbers. I won two more CP3’s on ebay, which will be useful for spares. I may get a normal V2 as well, as they are a bit easier to fly and have similar parts. I was looking at a dual rotor, but I already have a small one of those.

Jamie is cooking tonight. I’m glad I bought wine.

Finally slept last night, which is good, except it took a bottle of wine to do it.

Cracked on with work, sorted out a rather interesting coloured sky problem. It’s all starting to work properly now, so getting a little easier, although still loads of work to do.

Walked the dogs quite early. Put Dillon on a sort of head collar thing, did wonders for his pulling, if anything Sasha was pulling more.

Went for a run. It’s getting very dark at night.

Talked to the guy who repairs heliguys helicopters, he’s never experienced the ball size problem and reckons it’s an old model. I mailed them again and they have agreed to replace it with a new model. All I need to do now is pack it up.

So started off this morning slightly later than usual. Dropped Sasha off at daycare then continued up the A38 to join the M5. Drove to Staverton and got there just before 8:30. There in the car park was a motor bike and a man who looked very much like Richard Hammond. I thought I must be mistaken as he looked a bit disheveled without his TV war paint on. He also seemed to have a key to the place. Anyway, we swapped ‘good mornings’. James turned up and sauntered over as if he was at a evening soiree. We got our ‘copter out and checked it over. Then went into the planning room where James went through the manifold pressures and attitudes. He then introduced me to Richard. Nice chap, just as scatty in normal life.

We got into out aircraft as Richard was setting off. I was just going through my checklist and he flew back in again. James went and investigated and they disappeared off for a bit, then came back. Apparently he had a warning light on. It’s his own helicopter with his own call-sign on it. An R44, a few quids worth.

Anyway, we took to the skies on what turned out to be a pretty clear morning. I did some more assents and descents, all good. We then went in for some more hover practice. Now today winds were up to 12 Km/hr so it was a real ass to keep it stable. He asked if I wanted exactly an hour and I said I didn’t mind, so we went on until we almost ran out of fuel. Clocked up 1.2 hours in the end. Together with the R22 study guide that rolled in at just shy of £400.

Drove back and got on with work. Fixed environment maps, still have an orange rather than blue sky. But then spent most of the day fixing various shader problems.

Went for a run. Did the shopping list and now about to finish work just shy of midnight.

Oh, the arcade cabinet artwork is finished, it looks fab. I have a quote for the entire machine. It’s very expensive. It will be here in about four weeks. A bit of a luxury item, but you do need to live a little. At the moment I need to live a lot.

Back into debugging renderer pipelines, not the most exciting thing on the planet, but I find it good fun. Had great problems with producing mipmaps in cube maps. Got there in the end using a rather novel approach with six render targets.

Popped over to the sorting office and picked up a parcel.

Walked the dogs, although it was very short as Dillon kept pulling. Went for a run.

Unwrapped said parcel, it was my ‘Phoenix flight sim’. This comes with a USB interface. I installed it all and connected it to my Honey Bee CP3 controller. It actually configured fine which I didn’t expect. It doesn’t have the exact helicopter but it has some very similar models. Boy is it good. I was really surprised. The 3D copters are a real pain to fly, it’s going to be a great training aid. I spent about the first thirty minutes just snapping the rotors off. Finally I was getting the hang of it and getting it into a hover. Will have a play tomorrow. So now I have a simulator for the model, which is a simulator for the real thing. Much fun. Oh, my little copter I bought off Groupon is great as well, it’s an indoor one and is great for scaring the dog.

Wine time.