newbie help with cockpit drills and commentary

[GJD]

also I am struggling on giving a commentary however this has improved from nothing before I started Advanced Driving to giving occasional remarks on run 1, to more remarks about road and signs on my last run. i guess that this will keep on improving the more practice I do.

It will. When my RoSPA tutor told me that my commentary would improve with practice, I didn't really believe him. I couldn't see how I could improve by practising on my own without him there for feedback. But it works. One trick I used when practising on my own was to include a short loop (about 5 minutes) around town driven twice in succession, keeping the commentary going. This meant that second time around I had a good idea what hazards to expect. If I passed the school at lunch time and the urchins were milling about, they'd likely still be there 5 minutes later. As would the temporary traffic lights, and the lorry unloading in the street.

Obviously it's artificial, and not representative of the test, to give yourself a second chance at the same hazards. But while a good commentary means 1) identifying hazards, 2) prioritising them and making a plan, and 3) talking about the hazards and the plan, it's only step 3 that's specific to commentary - you do 1 and 2 all the time you are driving. I found that second time around the loop gave two benefits: I had a good idea what hazards to expect (although no guarantees of course) so steps 1 and 2 were easier, leaving me more mental capacity to focus on practising step 3. And second time around I was able to refine bits of commentary from the first loop that I hadn't been happy with.

[fungus]

I can't really see much of a point in doing it on your own car?

The question of whether the brake tests performed on your own vehicle were relevent as you drove the vehicle every day and knew whether the brakes were functional or not, arose during a talk given by one of our examiners. The answer was that from personal experience, it was. He went on to tell us that during his time in the Police, he'd performed the brake test on his own car only to find the brake pedal sink slowly to the floor. His brake line had been cut. Although this incident happened to a serving police officer, and it is likely that he had upset someone who held a grudge, and, although unlikely, it is possible that it could happen to anyone.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

The primary purpose of cockpit drill is to ensure you are safe. You want to make sure your car is safe before you start the engine, that it's safe to drive and won't break down on the journey, and that you know how to operate it (more important for unfamiliar cars, obviously).

Just imagine to yourself that someone else has been driving the car (deliberately alter the positions of things perhaps as another poster suggested) and go through the stuff you would go through if someone gave you the keys to their pride and joy and suggested you take them for a drive in it (it happens). You'd want to ensure you were safe and didn't look a fool or worse, damage it or someone through not knowing how to control it. Imagine the owner sitting in the passenger seat, watching with interest as you prepare yourself to drive their car - it works for me

My tutor when I was an associate, had the idea of recording the drills on tape, and listening to them both in and out of the car as a learning aid. Obviously you can also print it out and practice it like an actor learning lines - get someone to test you perhaps.

I've posted about commentary elsewhere, and I'm not the world's greatest exponent of it, so I'll leave that to others.