Midlothian county choppers

At least it was a productive day at the controls.  I finished writing a briefing paper that was based on entire days of maths and research.  All it really says is that doing such-and-such carries risk and should be matched by medium term mitigation.  The thing is, I already wrote a load of guidance that set out what that mitigation ought to look like.  I did that over a year ago. :-/

Brightening an otherwise dull afternoon, two Chinook helicopters flew over.  They've been a semi-regular sight over the past month and I don't think I've been the only one quickly reaching for a camera.  The MOD is sponsoring a training exercise called Operation Strike Warrior over northern England and all of Scotland, involving low flying and practice approaches to different obstacles and locations.  This one had its rear loading ramp deployed as it flew over.

I'm still smarting from the problems with Fidra.  I hope that the too-many-volts pouring out of the alternator haven't damaged the ECU, because otherwise that would be curtains.  After work I was headachey again and went out for a cycle to get away from my thoughts for an hour.

In other random news, musicians aren't getting any younger, and yesterday the bell tolled for Paul Di'Anno.  He was the original singer with Iron Maiden before Bruce Dickinson took over.  Di'Anno was all raspy, punk 'tude with spiked-leather swagger, but he could carry a note too.  I never much cared for his later antics but the first two albums with Maiden were quite good.