Re: Hello from West Sussex
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 10:16 pm
Do not only mention the hazard, but also what you are going to do about it: 'Blind entrance on the left, losing speed and positioning away from it'.
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IcedKiwi wrote:Well done, sounds like you're doing great - Hope you're enjoying it too
akirk wrote:with commentary - one of the key approaches is to focus on what is important / critical and filter out or minimise other things - so going through a shopping street, you might sum up all activity on the right as 'pedestrians on the right, no risk' but then focus more on a set of small children on the left - i.e. show clarity as to where your attention might be...
Also, abbreviate what you are saying to allow you a more leisurely commentary...
'50 limit, left bend, farm ahead' is much simpler, than
'50 limit approaching in 300 yards, followed by a left bend and I can see that there is a farm by the sign saying eggs for sale and the one saying mud on the road'
that allows you to be less rushed and gives your passenger a feeling that you are in control / have seen everything / but are not hurried...
Alasdair
waremark wrote:Do not only mention the hazard, but also what you are going to do about it: 'Blind entrance on the left, losing speed and positioning away from it'.
akirk wrote:
it might be that actually raising your view / eyes up the windscreen would help a lot, sometimes drivers have a view which is just in front of the car - that gives you very little time to react... in an urban setting you will of course be continually flicking between close and medium distance - on an open road it might be more medium and long distance - your view and planning and then commentary might need to be on what is 1/2 or 1 mile ahead of you! On a drive last year I found that the commentary I was doing on the open road related to what I could see in cross views and through bends and across hedges for quite a distance ahead, maybe several bends ahead, but by looking that far ahead, there were far fewer surprises when I got there, so the tractor coming close to a field gate had already been seen / the car coming down a minor side road and about to join my road had already been catered for, etc.
and if you don't have that length of view - slow down until the distance you can see is still taking a similar time, meaning that you are still commenting on stuff that is about the same time ahead of you...
Alasdair
Jonquirk wrote:One of Chris Gilbert's tips on learning commentary driving is to separate driving and commentary by sitting in the passenger seat and providing the commentary as someone else drives. It might be worth a try.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Sounds like you're having fun
Going back to the left hand bends, Horse has quoted two different mnemonics which cover why to position, and the result of the positioning.
Safety, view, advantage tells you why it might be useful to adopt a particular position, with safety being the most important aspect.
Safety, stability and view tells you the result of adopting a position, but crucially, it refers to RIGHT hand bends. The corresponding mnemonic for LEFT hand bends is:
Stability, view and safety, which shows how adopting an offside position on a left hander might improve stability (greater radius of curvature) and view, but compromises safety, so we always have to remember it's a "nice to have", not a "one size fits all", because it inevitably compromises safety.
As Alasdair said, one of the key points is to adopt the position early, so it can be varied based on prevailing conditions - road surface, traffic, view etc.
HTH