Hey Tom,

It might be worth posting some general driving techniques for some of the manoeuvres you teach.

Incidentally (cough...), my reverse parking is quite poor compared even to my first go at the manoeuvre when you were teaching me. Maybe this would be a good question to get the ball rolling

I can knock up something in flash if you want to provide visual aids.

You're just ahead of me on that Kevin. Now that my training has finished for the time being (Test got cancelled) i was going to begin on a new topic that encourages you all to think about your driving skills. Visual aids would be a huge benefit in some cases but i'm not entirely sure of what aids are at my disposal. Any ideas you have i would be glad to hear. Anyway i thought i'd start with asking who here still uses the cockpit drill. Usually this would be the first casualty of passing the driving test when you all jump in your cars. Just to remind you the drill is DOORS/SEATING POSITION/MIRRORS/SEATBELT. I would appreciate your absolute honesty otherwise this is a useless exercise.


My slant on things is this: if you don't do the drill my tip would be to make sure you still check your doors (wouldn't want anyone to fall out the car when travelling) and check your mirrors (where did that car come from? is not what you want to be thinking on the way to casualty) The seating position and seatbelt tends to be a natural check so no worries there.

Also who checks handbrake and gear lever before starting the engine? If you don't do this any more can i suggest even a visual check.

I'll get back to you on your reverse park later tonight as i'm just going out.

No rush on the reverse parking question.

As for the illustrations, I was thinking about something like the flash movie at the web page linked below:

http://www.2pass.co.uk/parallel.htm

I've sent you the file on reverse parking via e-mail. Wouldn't i like to be a fly on the wall (well windscreen) watching you practice all over again

I take it then that everyone still carries out the cockpit drill and the safety checks Either i've done a fantastic job on you guys or no one can be bothered with Mastermind for the under 5's

Thanks Tom.

If you're interested, I'll knock up something in flash for this guide that we can put on the main website under a new section.
It will be a couple of weeks before I have the time though.

That would be brilliant Kevin, i'm sure it will be extremely useful for anyone looking at it. I will send you the file for a slightly different method that i now use, as the Swift has better visibility so i was able to simplify things. I will also send files on the other manoeuvres. Don't worry about the time, there's no rush.

Thanks again
Tom