Advanced Motorist
A month or so ago, I passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) Test at the second attempt. I had been working at it for about a year. It really is one of the better things I have done recently as I feel I am driving better, more safely and anticipating hazards.
At the beginning one is allocated an “observer”. Mine is called John Convery and is a senior nurse working in the accident and emergency department at Pinderfields hospital, Wakefield. The road traffic accidents he deals with are the motivators for him doing the observer work.
One arranges to drive your own car every couple of weeks or so for about an hour with John teaching and observing. I volunteered to make a commentary about what I was doing and seeing. This I found easy as I simply rambled on. There were books to study and these included the Highway Code, a book on road signs and the IAM handbook. I became a very sad person and was reading the Highway Code whilst eating my breakfast.
One has to stick to the speed limits. This means that one has to know what the speed limit is at any time and it took me a while to be able to do this. There can be a change of speed limit on a sign hidden behind the leaves of a tree. One should be able to tell what the limit is if one has missed the sign. Generally, if there are lamp posts it is 30 mph. There are repeater signs for 40, 50 and national speed limits on roads that have such limits and lamp posts. Isn’t this fascinating? One drives up to the limit if it is safe. In 30 limits I experienced serious road rage from tailgating vehicles and sometimes pulled over to let them overtake. I also had, in the early days, some heated discussions with Kath when I was dawdling along. I did a lot of practicing by myself. Having an observer talking about his job got me used to driving in an advanced manner with a passenger – a normalized situation.
I could write at length about what I learned about every aspect of driving. Suffice it to state that I feel I am a better and safer driver in Italy, which we visit a lot. There are some serious lunatic drivers there.
On the first Sunday each month one could go along to Halford’s car park in Pontefract and have a drive with a senior observer, usually retired police drivers. The first session I had was with Gerry (whom I knew as he was in our Italian language class. He got me into all this). He was excellent and it was early days for me. He got me reversing in to a parking space (I was hopeless) and doing a three point turn (I had forgotten how to do that properly). He taught me, as did John, to drive “with sparkle”.
I went with another senior observer, Graham, later in the year and had another drive with me before my test. He told me I was OK and did not need wishing luck. How wrong he was!!
The test is one and a half hours and my first examiner was Phil. He is a sergeant in the traffic division of Wakefield police. We met in Morrison’s car park in Wakefield. I got there well before him so he did not see me park. It was a cloudy day and he arrived wearing shades and reversed his car immaculately into a parking space. I thought there was going to be trouble here! Before we got into the car he said he presumed I had done a cockpit check before I left home and he proposed an external car check. He asked me what the minimum tred on tyres was. I had no idea. He asked me how to check that both brake lights were working and I gave a hopeless answer to that. We set off and he took me on some seriously narrow country roads on Emley Moor. I was driving with too much “sparkle” i.e. too fast and I completely mucked up a bend, committing the sin of having to brake whilst in the bend. I made an inappropriate merry quip about the police at one point. He got me reversing downhill round a bend first on one side of the road and then the other. I completely mucked it up. I had not practiced reversing apart from into a parking space. He talked a lot and I got the feeling I had done everything wrongly. When we got back to Morrison’s and parked up he told me he could not recommend me for membership of the IAM. I was shaken as I thought he might forgive a few errors. He advised me how to change gear differently and all sorts of other things.
We were going to London later that day. I seriously felt I had let my observer John down as he had taught me such a lot and spent so much of his free time with me (all unpaid). I texted him and he replied that he thought the examiner was a swine. It did not spoil the weekend but I talked about it with Kath a lot and that did me good. I have failed all sorts of tests and exams over the years. I failed my driving test the first time. As the time went on I realized Phil was absolutely right to fail me. I was determined to pass the next time. There are two examiners and I did not know which one I would get next. I decided to practice all the things Phil had told me about. I wrote an article on “failure” which is on one of my blogs. I went out and did as much of the test route as I could remember. Our garden has a curved flower bed one has to drive past to get out. I practice over and over again reversing first with the curve next to the driver’s side and then next to the offside. I tilted the mirrors down to see what I was doing.
I decided that I was OK at the advanced aspects of the test but had not revisited what one has to be able to do in the basic test. I bought yet another book that was very good. It talked about tyre tread, pressures. I read and learned about my car from it’s manual. I bought a tread meter and a gadget that measures the tyre pressures and is also a pump powered from the cigar lighter.
I applied to go in for the test again as soon as was feasible. I decided to take the test and not tell John Convery this time. One evening the phone rang and it was Phil!! Better the devil you know.
I was seriously nervous the morning of the test. Phil told me he had not slept beacuase of his irritable bowel. Like last time, he fixed his own reversing mirror on to the windscreen by means of a sucker. He got out his notepad and we set off. After 10 minutes he said “let’s get the reversing over with”. We did and it was OK. Not downhill this time. As I was “rambling on” I pointed out how I had taken on all the things he had told me and that I had bought a tread meter and tyre pump. I was very open and honest about my approach. We were only out for an hour and I had the strong feeling I had passed. I had. I thanked him and gave him a copy of my essay on failure on which I had hand written “thanks, Phil”.
So I phoned Kath and texted John. He replied “you slimy bastard” but was obviously pleased.
I arranged to meet him to thank him and took a card and a present. He is a very decent man with a great family who were very nice to me.
What conclusions have I come to? Wel, I am a qualified educationalist and I learned that you can never stop learning even about something you have been doing every day for decades.
A month or so ago, I passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) Test at the second attempt. I had been working at it for about a year. It really is one of the better things I have done recently as I feel I am driving better, more safely and anticipating hazards.
At the beginning one is allocated an “observer”. Mine is called John Convery and is a senior nurse working in the accident and emergency department at Pinderfields hospital, Wakefield. The road traffic accidents he deals with are the motivators for him doing the observer work.
One arranges to drive your own car every couple of weeks or so for about an hour with John teaching and observing. I volunteered to make a commentary about what I was doing and seeing. This I found easy as I simply rambled on. There were books to study and these included the Highway Code, a book on road signs and the IAM handbook. I became a very sad person and was reading the Highway Code whilst eating my breakfast.
One has to stick to the speed limits. This means that one has to know what the speed limit is at any time and it took me a while to be able to do this. There can be a change of speed limit on a sign hidden behind the leaves of a tree. One should be able to tell what the limit is if one has missed the sign. Generally, if there are lamp posts it is 30 mph. There are repeater signs for 40, 50 and national speed limits on roads that have such limits and lamp posts. Isn’t this fascinating? One drives up to the limit if it is safe. In 30 limits I experienced serious road rage from tailgating vehicles and sometimes pulled over to let them overtake. I also had, in the early days, some heated discussions with Kath when I was dawdling along. I did a lot of practicing by myself. Having an observer talking about his job got me used to driving in an advanced manner with a passenger – a normalized situation.
I could write at length about what I learned about every aspect of driving. Suffice it to state that I feel I am a better and safer driver in Italy, which we visit a lot. There are some serious lunatic drivers there.
On the first Sunday each month one could go along to Halford’s car park in Pontefract and have a drive with a senior observer, usually retired police drivers. The first session I had was with Gerry (whom I knew as he was in our Italian language class. He got me into all this). He was excellent and it was early days for me. He got me reversing in to a parking space (I was hopeless) and doing a three point turn (I had forgotten how to do that properly). He taught me, as did John, to drive “with sparkle”.
I went with another senior observer, Graham, later in the year and had another drive with me before my test. He told me I was OK and did not need wishing luck. How wrong he was!!
The test is one and a half hours and my first examiner was Phil. He is a sergeant in the traffic division of Wakefield police. We met in Morrison’s car park in Wakefield. I got there well before him so he did not see me park. It was a cloudy day and he arrived wearing shades and reversed his car immaculately into a parking space. I thought there was going to be trouble here! Before we got into the car he said he presumed I had done a cockpit check before I left home and he proposed an external car check. He asked me what the minimum tred on tyres was. I had no idea. He asked me how to check that both brake lights were working and I gave a hopeless answer to that. We set off and he took me on some seriously narrow country roads on Emley Moor. I was driving with too much “sparkle” i.e. too fast and I completely mucked up a bend, committing the sin of having to brake whilst in the bend. I made an inappropriate merry quip about the police at one point. He got me reversing downhill round a bend first on one side of the road and then the other. I completely mucked it up. I had not practiced reversing apart from into a parking space. He talked a lot and I got the feeling I had done everything wrongly. When we got back to Morrison’s and parked up he told me he could not recommend me for membership of the IAM. I was shaken as I thought he might forgive a few errors. He advised me how to change gear differently and all sorts of other things.
We were going to London later that day. I seriously felt I had let my observer John down as he had taught me such a lot and spent so much of his free time with me (all unpaid). I texted him and he replied that he thought the examiner was a swine. It did not spoil the weekend but I talked about it with Kath a lot and that did me good. I have failed all sorts of tests and exams over the years. I failed my driving test the first time. As the time went on I realized Phil was absolutely right to fail me. I was determined to pass the next time. There are two examiners and I did not know which one I would get next. I decided to practice all the things Phil had told me about. I wrote an article on “failure” which is on one of my blogs. I went out and did as much of the test route as I could remember. Our garden has a curved flower bed one has to drive past to get out. I practice over and over again reversing first with the curve next to the driver’s side and then next to the offside. I tilted the mirrors down to see what I was doing.
I decided that I was OK at the advanced aspects of the test but had not revisited what one has to be able to do in the basic test. I bought yet another book that was very good. It talked about tyre tread, pressures. I read and learned about my car from it’s manual. I bought a tread meter and a gadget that measures the tyre pressures and is also a pump powered from the cigar lighter.
I applied to go in for the test again as soon as was feasible. I decided to take the test and not tell John Convery this time. One evening the phone rang and it was Phil!! Better the devil you know.
I was seriously nervous the morning of the test. Phil told me he had not slept beacuase of his irritable bowel. Like last time, he fixed his own reversing mirror on to the windscreen by means of a sucker. He got out his notepad and we set off. After 10 minutes he said “let’s get the reversing over with”. We did and it was OK. Not downhill this time. As I was “rambling on” I pointed out how I had taken on all the things he had told me and that I had bought a tread meter and tyre pump. I was very open and honest about my approach. We were only out for an hour and I had the strong feeling I had passed. I had. I thanked him and gave him a copy of my essay on failure on which I had hand written “thanks, Phil”.
So I phoned Kath and texted John. He replied “you slimy bastard” but was obviously pleased.
I arranged to meet him to thank him and took a card and a present. He is a very decent man with a great family who were very nice to me.
What conclusions have I come to? Wel, I am a qualified educationalist and I learned that you can never stop learning even about something you have been doing every day for decades.
Labels: driving cars
posted by Ivan at 10:55 AM
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