Monday, November 17th, 2008
Today was quite a lot of driving around and a couple of manoeuve, based upon the deficiency in my driving last week. The majority of it went well, both turning round in the road and reverse parking worked well, it helped me greatly to look back over my notes and refresh my memory.
The other major thing we worked on was gear changes approaching junctions, particularly my lack of them! I have a tendency to forget to change gear and try and do roundabouts at 15mph in 4th gear or something equally daft. We decided that this was because I am pre-occupied with understanding the situation, and thus I forget to go through all of the essential steps when approaching a junction.
I am getting there, slowly but at least I feel like I am driving. Kev discovered that the Brighton and Hove DSA test centers are closing in January meaning we (and all Brighton and Hove students) will have to drive to Eastbourne or Burges Hill to take their test, adding a good 20-30 minutes travel to and from the test centers. Never mind eh.
Lastly the car started smoking as we pulled up, it had possibly been smoking before that. It appears that part of the high preasure water system had burst leaving the radiator with little or no active cooling. Feel sorry for Kev he has only got the car back from the garrage recently.
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Monday, November 10th, 2008
So today was a mock test, one of several before I take my actual test. We drove down to the test center in Brighton Marina where Kev explained the test to me, how majors and minors worked and what would score as what. I still haven’t done emergency stops so we could not cover that, other than that it seemed pretty much as I had read and expected.
Kev got me to do three manoeuvres, the first was turning round in the road, which I did, not without hitting the kerb (I forgot to steer when reversing) so that was a major. Reverse parking was difficult as it was pitch black and my steering was off at best so Kev had to intervene as I was misjudging the position of the car rather seriously. Reverse round the corner went better, however I hit the kerb again as I overcompensated - all three would be easier in the daylight so I am not overly concerned about them.
My general driving wasn’t that bad, in a couple of places I was slow to move off, and my use of mirrors and the MSPSL routine left something to be desired, particularly after making a mistake.
In the end I had 4 majors and 13 minors, which isn’t too bad - it does show how important plenty of practice is.
So, next week should be more practice. In the mean time I have bought myself a copy of Focus’s Driving Test Successs - Practical Simulator which seems okay, not really that close to actual driving although I think it is helping me learn the sequences.
Going to give myself tonight off to watch Spooks and maybe play a little Team Fortress 2 or EVE Online (Who have their winter expansion released tomorrow).
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Monday, October 27th, 2008
I had another ‘funny feet’ day today, not as bad as two lessons ago however. I was being a little hasty trying to move off - this is part of becoming more confident we think, I am no longer able to crawl away without any gas on the flat as I am bringing the clutch up much faster. This means I have to adjust my technique sligtly by putting on the gas and then bringing the clutch up, this is often coupled with taking the hand brake off. It is a lot to think about at once, but I picked it up well.
I was proud of my turning round in the road, I managed it without prompting, questioning myself or hitting the kerb, thus I only had to do it once, much nicer on my legs. Reversing round a corner in the dark was hard work as I kept loosing the kerb, had to try it three times before I managed it. Didn’t do great on the last try either.
I am still happy with my progress! Next lesson same time next week!
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Monday, October 13th, 2008
Today was another funny driving lesson my feet weren’t quite right, and I kept doing silly things made a bit of a mess of turning round in the road and didn’t get reversing round a corner quite right. One of the things I was doing particularly wrong was putting the clutch down while breaking, for some reason I have it stuck in my head that clutch goes down when slowing down, rather than just before I come to a stop. Kev got me too take my foot of clutch pedal when driving and rest it on the side (which has done wonders for my ankles) it also delays me putting the clutch down.
The second thing I had problems with today was again braking, I was a little heavy on the brake which probably comes down to anticipation or not as my case is.
I learn’t something about roundabouts though, if I scan round the roundabout in a clockwise direction when approaching/stopped at the roundabout I check the most important thing last, i.e. traffic from the right.
There were many more little things, Kev seems to think that after the current block of lessons are up I probably won’t need another full block before I am ready to take my test. Scary stuff.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
So, today went much better than last week. We did quite a nice loop of the area I am contemplating taking a GPS with me next time and leaving it logging on the back seat so that I actually know where I have actually been. Maybe I will do that when I have passed my test, could be a little distracting if it started beeping at me.
I got two major things from my lesson today; first being that after last week driving isn’t that bad after all, the second is that speed limit signs should be seen on both sides of the road like a gate.
The above example is taken from the A259 (actually it is flipped along the horizontal axis for the sake of clarity) moving towards Peacehaven in a 40 zone, passing a side road that is national speed limit before moving into a 30 zone.
What I did was see the national speed limit signs and speed up, in my head I had seen the signs but not really thought about it too careful, what I need to remember is speed limits are like gates you have to pass through them for them to take effect, i.e. if I had been turning left up the side road I would have passed through the national speed limit gates.
Another lesson next Monday.
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Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
The BBC has posted a list of 10 “driving tips” to make your driving experience more enjoyable and rewarding, the article has the added advantage of providing an insight into the day-to-day driving skills that people develop on thier own without any formal instruction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7635486.stm
I particuarly liked number 3 - “Make Eye Contact When You Can”; which is something I picked up a few years ago while walking around town making eye contact with people walking towards you often helped both parties to pass eachother without bumping or jostling. It is not something I had thought about with regard to driving, although I am going to try and put it into practice at pedestrian crossings if I get a chance.
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Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Had my first ever evening driving lesson this evening, Kev and I went to Seaford and back again over the course of the lesson, using some national speed limit single carriageways and some town driving.
Had a slightly hairy moment when I decided to change lanes while going round a roundabout, actually scratch the “slightly hairy”; it was down right dangerous. My mistake was; I had this image in my mind that if you are going straight on at a roundabout you go round the out side… what I had not got straight in my head was that if you are in the right hand lane stay in the right hand lane, all comes down to Mirror-Signal-Manovure.
I messed up turning round in the road and had to do it in four points rather than three, which was no big deal really it was slightly frustrating.
A huge upside was that I had not forgotten as much as I expected to, I spent some time revising from what I have posted up here - Really helped. So fellow learner drivers practice “stealth revision”:
- Do your lesson
- Write down what you learned
- Next day… read through what you wrote down, correct as required
- Day before your next lesson (or after a week which ever comes sooner) read through your write up again
- If possible read through it again just before your lesson to keep it in your head
Kev is more than happy to read through what I have written, and I am sure your ADI will be equally as happy. I check back on my notes when ever I have a free minute on the bus. It is stealth because it dosn’t feel like revision!
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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
Breaking my streak of 11 blog posts on the day of my driving lesson… I had a driving lesson yesterday. Strangely enough I feel that my driving is getting worse, I don’t think it actually is getting any worse I am just getting more confident and trying to do more things at once, at which point Kev steps in (literally) with the foot break.
Interesting experience today as we were driving round in the pouring rain, it was quite disturbing at first as the windscreen wipers were distracting, however once I got over that I was more or less ignoring them. The main issue I had was large blobs of rain obscuring entire cars, again once I got use to checking a bit more carefully I got over that too.
Kev went through reverse parking today which was actually easier than I expected, perhaps because I had been doing amazingly boring task of “paper work” before my lesson today so my brain was ready to learn something. The essence of the manoeuvre is as follows, please remember that this may be TOTALLY INCORRECT and much of it will only apply to the particular model of car I am driving:
- Start about a meter beyond the car you are going to park opposite (i.e. with the front of the car facing).
- Do the checks from your blind spot round to the rear window.
- Reverse until the car disappears behind the head-rest of the car (this bit may not work unless you are in Kev’s car!).
- Check your blind spot.
- Do one whole turn to the left (i.e. towards the kerb).
- Once the wheel arch starts to obscure the kerb, turn the wheel two whole turns to the right.
- Once the car is parallel with the road straighten up.
At this point you should be there. I was stopping between each step to figure out what I was doing next, although it could be done without stopping I suppose.
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Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
Had quite a break between lessons this time, found it much harder to get into the frame of mind after an 8 day break, came back quickly enough. Kev has been trying to get me talking through what I am doing to improve my concentration and awareness of the situation, I am still struggling to get junctions and roundabout quite right, I still tend to come up to the junction to fast not giving myself enough time to get into position, change gear down and look.
It is helpful talking may way through the things I find harder, because I often answer my own questions, or at least know where I am going wrong when I say it. We spent some time turning round in the road (three point turns, although they can be done in more than three) looking at hazards and improveing the frequency that I check mirrors.
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
20 hours of driving lessons completed now, and Kev and I took the time to go through the Driver’s Record that the Driving Standards Agency provides people who book a theory test for the first time. The Driver’s Record is broken down into twenty driving skills and four other skills related to car ownership. You can read more about the Driver’s Record on direct.gov.
Each of the 20 driving skills are rated between 1 and 5, where 1 is Introduced and 5 is independent without prompts from the driving instructor. In total I have one of the skills at level 5, three at level 4, twelve at level 3 none at level 2, two at level 1 and there are two that I have not looked at yet (emergency stops and parking). I am pleased with the progress I have made although I expect I will need another 40 hours of lessons before I will be close to being able to take my practical test.
Onto the actual content of the lesson, we spent some more time reversing round corners which along with turning round in the road, I find quite difficult. We also covered some more roundabouts and junctions both of which I am improving on, but still find difficult.
Kev also taught me a technique for moving off faster, essentially it is moving from the step by step approach to moving off to being about to prepare to move off quickly. Here is the process I have been using up until now, taken from the safely stopped position (i.e. handbrake on and in neutral):
- push the clutch down
- change into first gear
- give the engine a bit of gas
- bring the clutch up to biting point
- put more gas on to get the revs back up
- check the internal mirror, right door mirror and right blind spot, only move on to the next step if it is safe.
- take the hand brake off
- keep feet in the same place until moving
- come off the clutch and add more gas until up to speed
The technique Kev taught me today was to combine 3, 4 and 5 with a single movement to bring the clutch up to biting point and the gas down to provide sufficient power from the engine. It was good fun, I don’t think I have got it yet but I am improving.
Unfortunately I haven’t got a lesson until next Wednesday, I know how learners feel now if they have to wait a week between each lesson.
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