Day out with Chris Gilbert

[martine]

...I have looked at your ADUK days out and would love to come and try one but feel a little intimidated by all of you because I don't think I'm near your standard at all yet!

Please don't be! Anyone is most welcome to come to an ADUK day - the only proviso is they are open minded to learn from others and are willing to offer comments when they are passengers! Seriously we have all sorts on ADUK days from very experienced to AD novices - all united in the desire to have fun and learn from others.

There's an Oxford day coming up...

[Nicola]

Ok you two - I will have a look and see how to get myself on the list. I would be really nervous though ......

[martine]

Ok you two - I will have a look and see how to get myself on the list. I would be really nervous though ......

I would be more than happy to go out with you (you get paired up for the morning and then with someone different for the afternoon) - I'll be gentle, honest (but only if you're gentle with me as well).

To 'sign-up' all you do is find the thread in the 'driver network' forum here and post a reply saying you'd like to be added to the list.

[jcochrane]

Ok you two - I will have a look and see how to get myself on the list. I would be really nervous though ......

Well done..a good descision. You're guaranteed a great time! The roads in the area are just made for driving and there is no reason for you to be nervous....unless you drive with me, I scare myself most of the time when I'm driving which is why I keep my eyes closed.

[vieuxtigre]

Nicola,

Just to reassure you, I've driven with jc and been driven by him and he drives very well indeed eyes closed or open!

vieuxtigre

[revian]

I have looked at your ADUK days out and would love to come and try one but feel a little intimidated by all of you because I don't think I'm near your standard at all yet!

Hi Nicola... My timetable isn't likely to allow me AD days in the foreseeable future...but the recent thread on reversing woes might show a more level playing field.. Just ask everyone to drive backwards...

[fungus]

I have looked at your ADUK days out and would love to come and try one but feel a little intimidated by all of you because I don't think I'm near your standard at all yet!

Hi Nicola... My timetable isn't likely to allow me AD days in the foreseeable future...but the recent thread on reversing woes might show a more level playing field.. Just ask everyone to drive backwards...

What's the problem with driving backwards? Quite easy really, provided you don't try to be too clever.

Likewise, I'm always too busy on Saturdays nowadays to attend ADUK driving days, but would highly recommend them. You will find a wide range of abilities and age groups, but everyone is looking to improve, or iron out some flaw in their driving, and the criticism is IME, constructive. Above all, it's a fun day out, shared with a freindly bunch of people.

PS. What is the commission rate for selling ADUK driving days?

[Nicola]

Dave - your MX5 sounds something else it really does:)
I have been practising again today and actually got some better results coming up to roundabouts. The thing is - your method is clearly different and you are an advanced driver but others advocate the slower approach. Does it mean that there is no right or wrong as long as it is safe? I am sure that a slower approach is much smoother but does that necessarily mean it is safer? I don't know the answer to all of these questions - I am on the bottom rung of the ladder and clearly don't have the experience to have formed opinions yet so just throwing out questions
Martine - that is an invitation I can't refuse I will sign up and come along and see what it is all about.....and jc - I'm glad you have your eyes closed because it's quite likely that you've seen me over in the Redhill area, behaving badly , before I saw the light
I will be there tomorrow morning as well so watch out for me 'n Bluebell

[Nicola]

I have looked at your ADUK days out and would love to come and try one but feel a little intimidated by all of you because I don't think I'm near your standard at all yet!

Hi Nicola... My timetable isn't likely to allow me AD days in the foreseeable future...but the recent thread on reversing woes might show a more level playing field.. Just ask everyone to drive backwards...

What's the problem with driving backwards? Quite easy really, provided you don't try to be too clever.

Likewise, I'm always too busy on Saturdays nowadays to attend ADUK driving days, but would highly recommend them. You will find a wide range of abilities and age groups, but everyone is looking to improve, or iron out some flaw in their driving, and the criticism is IME, constructive. Above all, it's a fun day out, shared with a freindly bunch of people.

PS. What is the commission rate for selling ADUK driving days?

Interesting - my son and I were reading through the Highway Code the other day ( like you do) and we discovered that it is actually against the law to 'reverse your car more than is necessary' We have still been chatting about it and wondering what happened to result in that particular commandment being put into the code

[jcochrane]

.....and jc - I'm glad you have your eyes closed because it's quite likely that you've seen me over in the Redhill area, behaving badly , before I saw the light
I will be there tomorrow morning as well so watch out for me 'n Bluebell

You're OK for tomorrow as I will be working in Westminster.
We might have seen each other in that area in the past on a Saturday morning as I used to regularly cycle out with the Addiscombe CC on a club run that would take us close to Redhill.
If you saw a large group of cyclists wearing yellow that would probably be us. I think we still hold the record of getting over a hundred cyclists out on a single club ride. Mind you we did split up into smaller groups after we had cycled round Coulsdon a few times for the media pictures.

[fungus]

Interesting - my son and I were reading through the Highway Code the other day ( like you do) and we discovered that it is actually against the law to 'reverse your car more than is necessary' We have still been chatting about it and wondering what happened to result in that particular commandment being put into the code

Yes, rule 203 is a very grey area. My take on it, is that a reversing driver is a hinderance to other drivers, so therefor we should not reverse for too far and inconvenience othe drivers. On the otherhand, we may need to reverse for a considerable distance back to a passing place, in a single track road.

[zadocbrown]

Nicola, I suspect what CG suggested to you and what you see Dave doing are towards the extremes - on a superficial level. The approaches look very different, but if you accept that both work it's worth considering what they have in common. This will get you to the heart of the question. Beyond that, it's a choice of what works best for you, the vehicle, the road, traffic or circumstances of a particular drive.

One of the good things about the driving days is that you do see a range of different approaches to the same problem. Which allows you to really interrogate the pros and cons, and is in many respects a better route to making up your own mind than going to more official groups and being told what to think....

[jcochrane]

I'm hoping to be at Oxford too... if sitting in a Skoda isn't too much of a climbdown, I'm happy to drive with anyone; except JC who did his formative years when he had to have a speedy runner with a flag in front...

Some people make such a fuss just because I insisted that you cary the red flag in front last time we drove together and you could not run fast enough. As a result could not get up to 5 mph and had to stay in first gear all the time and to make matters worse arrived at the tea stop too late to have a cup. I shall be looking for someone younger and fitter next time.

PS Dave, I bumped into Simon Hiscock the other day and was surprised when he told me he was an examiner with RoADA.

[jcochrane]

Dave - your MX5 sounds something else it really does:)

Alas, no longer. Fatherhood means a nicely underpowered Skoda Octavia diesel estate these days.

I have been practising again today and actually got some better results coming up to roundabouts. The thing is - your method is clearly different and you are an advanced driver but others advocate the slower approach. Does it mean that there is no right or wrong as long as it is safe?

I'm just 'different', full stop. I'm not an advanced driver in terms of the fact that I'm neither a member of IAM or ROADAR (nor ever likely to be as I have enough jam recipes already - joke (C) Simon Hiscock). My method is different because a lot of my formative experience comes from watching Met Police traffic officers drive under blue light conditions. They most certainly wouldn't recognise Chris' teachings as what actually happens in a jam sandwich. As with the answer to every question on here, it depends...

Why do I do what I do when it comes to linear hazards like roundabouts?

Firstly, I'm a pessimist - I always assume that I am going to have to stop at the give way line. If you're trying to cross a bust traffic stream then you are going to have to stop and weight.

Secondly, I've only got £10 worth of concentration to spend, and if I have to spend some of that answering the question 'do I need to do some more braking?', then I'm wasting money.

Thirdly, if you start slowing down early, you're just wasting time. Early observation is wonderful if things aren't going to signficantly change by the time you reach a hazard. In a roundabout situation, a lot can happen in say 20 seconds. Your concentration is far better spent deciding if you can come out of a braking phase that, if you do nothing, will stop you at the give way line. That thing you need to remember here, though, is that if you start braking early, it's very difficult to modulate the brakes over a long distance to get the right rate of deceleration. Engine braking is even worse because you only have six possible rates of retardation and some of those are locked out by road speed.

Fourthly, I've been doing this for over twenty years now and I only had three years of 'untrained' driving before that. Getting this shit right takes time... I was unbdoubtedly as awful a driver as it is possible to be and it took quite a few years of doing it wrong, even after training, before my driving was what could be considered acceptable. You cannot change things overnight.

I am sure that a slower approach is much smoother but does that necessarily mean it is safer? I don't know the answer to all of these questions - I am on the bottom rung of the ladder and clearly don't have the experience to have formed opinions yet so just throwing out questions
Martine - that is an invitation I can't refuse I will sign up and come along and see what it is all about.....and jc - I'm glad you have your eyes closed because it's quite likely that you've seen me over in the Redhill area, behaving badly , before I saw the light
I will be there tomorrow morning as well so watch out for me 'n Bluebell

I'm hoping to be at Oxford too... if sitting in a Skoda isn't too much of a climbdown, I'm happy to drive with anyone; except JC who did his formative years when he had to have a speedy runner with a flag in front...

Nicola, did you get the impression from CG that the use of the brake was a bit of a "no no" and acceleration sense was the mantra to keep it smooth? Firm braking as described by StressedDave does not have to be less smooth....it just takes a lot of practice.

[Nicola]

[/quote]
Nicola, did you get the impression from CG that the use of the brake was a bit of a "no no" and acceleration sense was the mantra to keep it smooth? Firm braking as described by StressedDave does not have to be less smooth....it just takes a lot of practice.[/quote]
Yes jc - exactly that. Someone else in the other CG thread had a day out with him and it seems that he was taught a somewhat different and 'lively' approach to a roundabout.

I am quite happy to change the way I drive for a better way - I just want to know what the better way is