So work was back on DX11, finally nailed the problem, it wasn’t even anything to do with the renderer. Still, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Walked the dogs, they pulled, very annoying.

Lots of things turned up today. My helicopter. My study books and DVD and x-plane 10.

I started charging the helicopter batteries, they take fucking ages. I haven’t looked at the books yet, but watched the DVD. Basic stuff, but covers some useful numbers.

I did attempt to get the helicopter to take off, it didn’t. Mind you it was dark and I think I have the pitch set wrong, will try and crash it again tomorrow.

I started installing x-plane 10, it’s 8 DVD’s. I only selected UK and North America scenery and it still took around 3 hours to install. Eventually it finished, then did a whacking great patch over the top. I’ve installed it on the iMac as that has a good screen and plenty of drive space. It’s also an i7 so has plenty of grunt. Had a quick pop with the R22, it isn’t very good, I need to get the plug-in for the decent one. It does work with my fancy joystick though, so should all be set when I have that. It does look pretty good.

Today started with debugging the damn DX11 line code. I found all the problems in the end, was something quite silly, just took a long time to track down.

The model helicopter people didn’t answer any of my emails which is rather disappointing.

I had lunch, that was disappointing.

I fired up the fsx simulator again and did a bit of hovering, managed to stall the engine, couldn’t restart it. I found that there is a better R22 model for x-plane, so I’ve ordered x-plane. I’ll then get the plug-in. It apparently simulates it quite well, if the RPM drops below 85% it falls out of the sky and you die, so that sounds about right.

I went for a run, that was almost disappointing.

Tomorrow I hope to have a more productive day, which isn’t disappointing.

So started perhaps a little later than normal, then ended up doing a whole bunch of stuff related to debug triangles. Not very exciting, just a hell of a lot of it. I can’t get the bloody line draw to work on DX11, wasted the bulk of the afternoon on that.

Walked the dogs. Looked at model helicopters, decided to get one to practice hovering with. Apparently they are quite a bitch, so very much like the real thing then. I’m looking at a 6 channel one, so it has the proper collective.

Went for a nice run in the evening.

Just watched the Belgium GP, wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. Never mind, back to work tomorrow, same as today then.

Work wise was a bit odd today, I was at a bit of a loose end waiting on a few bits from 3rd parties and internal. Ended up adding some debug triangle render code for one of our guys, he now wants to bear my children. It wasn’t a complicated job, just a hell of a lot of it, as it involves writing individual render code for DX9/DX11/PS3/360 and everything else. Still took the whole day plus a bit, but he was very grateful.

Skipped lunch as I wanted to plough on. Sasha isn’t happy at the moment anyway as she’s lost a claw, she has a very sore paw. So rather than walking we had a bit of a tug match in the garden so she didn’t have to move around a lot but still burnt off some energy. Jamie will take them both for a short disappointing walk later.

Not sure if I’m going to work the bank holiday or not yet, it’s tempting to work it so I can save the time up for more helicopter lessons.

I’ve paid the artist for the arcade cabinet design. It better be bloody good.

I’ve been looking at expensive headsets for the chopper, the basic ones I’ve been using don’t give much sound isolation. I’m not deaf but can’t hear as well as I’d like, talking to air traffic could be problematic. There’s an aviation shop at the airport so I may pop in there and try some out for comfort.

Wine time. Not sure what the weathers up to the weekend. Oh Saturday looks shit, but Sunday and Monday look okay, so make take it off after all. Will make a decision later in the weekend.

Started off finishing off a few bits of work from yesterday. Then implemented some line drawing code, which was a bit of an oddity, but it was on my schedule as a bit of a request.

Walked the dogs, had a sandwich. Soon it was time to drive up to Staverton. Made it in good time. Met up with captain James again. He is now at a different company across the car park. Same sorts of helicopters. There’s always a bit of politics in these things and he explained it all to me, he’s made a sensible decision. I paid my money. What it costs for an hour in a chopper you could pass your driving test for and have a few quid for fuel.

Now this time I mentioned the slightly uncomfortable position I had last time reaching the cyclic, even though James is about the same height as me. Anyway, a cushion was found which I put behind me, this made every thing very comfortable (helicopters, well the R22 doesn’t have adjustable seats). I went through the start up procedure and fired up ‘Charlie Delta’ our chopper for the hour. James got clearance and we taxied to the heli-pad. We got flight clearance and then ascended to about a thousand feet. Then the collective was passed to me as well as the pedals. Then I was pretty much left to get on with it. I was just told to follow the M5 and then take the path of the estuary in a big loop and keep it to about 75 knots (86 miles an hour). Certainly this time I was more relaxed, I had a very loose grip on the cyclic and I got the hang of keeping it straight and level. It requires very small inputs, it does almost like to fly itself, with some corrections. Turning was a bit more of a challenge, you have to maintain height and airspeed, which is fun when there is quite a lag on the air speed indicator. I was taught to just keep the compass on the horizon and recognise what speed you are doing just be the nose position. This actually came quite naturally after a while and I was following the river without any problems. We did another power off auto-rotation from about 1,000 feet. I was in charge of the cyclic so had to find a suitable field in which to ditch it. It’s surprising how much time it flies for with no engine, just keep your airspeed up and all is good. We ditched in a field and flared nicely, dead soft landing. I took off and James demonstrated some of the flexibility of the aircraft, including some fun low level flying and buzzing trees as well as landing in an area about the size of my lounge and then doing a pure vertical take-off.

We returned to the airfield and it was off to some waste ground to practice some hovering. I spent about twenty minutes trying to keep it stable, I think the maximum I managed was about 15 seconds. It’s bloody difficult, but was a big improvement on last time. I need to practice more on the simulator. We parked up and had a bit of a chat. I need to get some rather expensive books and things and do some studying, as there are exams to pass.

I drove home buzzing. It was really good, bloody expensive, perhaps somewhat pointless but easily a life changing and fun thing to do.

I returned back to work and did the hours I missed, mainly doing tools testing stuff and fixes for 64 bit. Had a shower and ate salad. Yes I will be drinking tonight, haven’t had anything since Sunday. Torture porn night.

Oh yes, I’m booked in again for two weeks time:)

Last night was a bit odd. Jamie came to bed at about 3AM, then started sneezing and coughing, then couldn’t breath. I went back to sleep and he slept in the spare room. Some sort of reaction to something. Doubt it’s dog hair, we’ve been surrounded by that for years.

I got up at 6:30 and took Sasha to daycare. I though the cleaners had arrived at 9:30, but it was a courier. Cleaners turned up at about 10. I drank coffee and did work. Nothing exciting work wise.

Picked up Sasha. Then took Dillon to the vet for his kennel cough vaccine thing, that was all fine. Apparently he is almost fully grown, even if he does have huge paws.

I was going for a run but it was pissing down, so fired up the helicopter sim instead and did a bit of flying and then some hover practice. I’m getting better, but I’m still fairly shit. I landed three times and crashed on each occasion, hopefully I’ll get the hang of it tomorrow, or this could be my last blog entry.