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Who would have thought that as a Driving Instructor I would have found it so difficult to write my first blog or article. After all, whenever someone asks me "So what do you do?" and I reply "Driving Instructor", it usually is followed by many stories beginning with "I passed first time", or "I had 40 lessons and I'm still a terrible driver", or "How much are driving lessons nowadays"? I thought my first article would be about some of the funny incidents that have come my way during the last how many years or so while I have been teaching people to drive in the Chelmsford area of Essex.
"You must have the patience of a saint" is something I hear quite often as a Driving Instructor, to which my reply is usually "Yes, you're damn right i do!" As a Driving instructor you don't need to just have patience, you need to have it and then some, and then some more. I remember once spending a few hours with a pupil at the start of his driving lessons teaching him the basics of turning right and left at junctions. It was clear early on that his steering was going to require some work, as he was unable to safely navigate one junction without me having to grab the wheel to stop us hitting the curb or swerving into the middle of the road.
At one point during the lesson we were driving along a completely straight road, (now to me and you that would mean holding the wheel still, right?) when all of a sudden he pulled the wheel sharply left and as I was grabbing the wheel and braking we mounted the curb and stopped, half on the curb half on the road. Having safely driven forward and parked I asked him "Is there any particular reason why you have steered us onto the pavement on this straight road?" to which he replied "But there was a massive bee by my window", "But your window was closed?" I said, "Oh yeah" came the subdued reply.
Another frequent disaster area can be roundabouts, I remember teaching a fairly middle aged man to drive (I subsequently found out that he had been driving around Chelmsford for years on a provisional licence!) and asking him to turn right at a roundabout would often fill me with dread, as rather than drive around the roundabout he would forget and try to steer the wrong way into oncoming traffic. After this happened a few times (and yes I did grab the wheel to stop it in time) I asked him why he would do 2-3 perfect roundabouts and then every now and then completely forget how roundabouts work, his reply was usually "I didn't realize it was a roundabout". Me saying "At the roundabout turn right" clearly wasn't enough of a clue, without mentioning the big circular island in front of him, oh and the traffic signs. home.
This particular gentleman never did pass his test with me, as when I found out that he was continuing to drive on his own having never passed his test I reported him to the police and refused to teach him anymore.
So yes I suppose we do need a lot of patience.
What are the different topics which will be discussed once I undergo formal driver training? This is, indeed, a very basic yet a very important question to ask, especially for those who want to undergo formal driving lessons.
First of all, it is important to understand that learning how to drive is not merely knowing how to manipulate or drive the car. It is, indeed, more complicated than that. As a matter of fact, learning how to drive, per se, is a simple task - it is something that you can actually learn by yourself with the help of some of your friends and family members. But, then again, learning how to drive does not end with knowing how to turn the wheels.
Basically, the first thing that will be discussed to you is the different information on the physical aspects of your car. In other words, you would be taught instructions on how your car actually works. How is this important? Well, if you are ignorant about the different parts of your car and if you are ignorant as to how those parts function, you will end up in big trouble every time your car breaks down - and your car will definitely break down at one point or another. Basically, knowing how your car works allows you to know what to do if something goes wrong with your car.
Of course, you will also be taught on how to actually operate or drive your car. First, you will be made, with the assistance of a professional driver, to drive the car on a straight line. Afterwards, once you are able to get hold of this most basic driving skill, you will now move on to more difficult tasks in order to acquire and learn more complicated skills. For instance, you will learn how to maneuver your car from one point to another on a curved path. After this, the road which you are going to test drive on will be filled with obstacles so that you will be able to learn how to swerve your car in order to avoid the aforementioned obstacles. Of course, once your teacher is satisfied, you will be taken out to the highway for your practical test.
Lastly, your driving lessons will include the teaching of some of the most important rules of the road. Some of the students actually take this for granted, not knowing that this lesson can make or unmake them as drivers.
If you are going to pay someone to teach you to drive than you want to make sure they have the experience and willingness to teach and are not there to just take your money. There are many driving schools who recruit trainee instructors and it's very unlikely that other than an ADI, a fully qualified DSA approved instructor would have the knowledge and experience to train you properly. What is the difference between a trainee instructor and an ADI and how can you tell the difference? - a trainee instructor who is still under training and has not completed the full training or passed all the tests to qualify as an ADI. Trainee instructors are granted a licence so they gain teaching experiences before their qualifying examination. ADI is an instructor who has completed the full training and has passed all the qualifying tests set by DSA (driving standards agency) to be approved and entered in the ADI register. To find out if your instructor is an ADI or a trainee, either you can ask or have a look at their badge usually displayed on car windscreen, pink badges are granted to trainees and green ones are to fully qualified instructors.
Now That You Booked Your Driving Lessons - Here Is Your First Few Lessons.
Once you are in the driving seat here are some of the things you will see, the instrument panel, foot controls, hand controls and last but not least mirrors. OK what are the foot controls? they are three pedals that you control with your feet known as the accelerator, footbrake and clutch. The accelerator and footbrake is operated by your right foot while the clutch is operated by your left foot only. Hand controls - the parking brake, gearstick, steering wheel and the indicators are all operated with your hands, there are many other hand controls such as the horn, windscreen wipers, demister controls and headlights.
Before you can safely pull away you should make sure all your mirrors are adjusted correctly so that you get a clear view of the road behind you. While seating in your normal driving position adjust your mirrors so that you can see with minimum head movement, try not to touch the interior mirror with your fingers while adjusting as this will leave finger print marks on the mirrors and blur the view. Make sure you adjust the interior mirror in a way so you get the full view of the back window or the best possible view, the side mirrors should be adjusted in a way so that you're only seeing just a little bit of your car and most of the road. Make sure you adjust mirrors before you move away as adjusting them while driving is very dangerous, if you do forget than always pull up to adjust them. You must make all adjustment after you have correctly adjusted your seats, if you need to move your seats for any reason than you must adjust the mirrors again as they will not be adjusted to you anymore. While driving you must not look at any of your mirrors too long as it is very important you keep your eyes on the road ahead at all times, just do quick glances at them. Remember the side mirrors are not to be used to make your judgements as they are designed slightly curvy to give you wider angle of view therefore objects will appear further away then they really are, while the interior one is made from flat glass which gives you the true image, always use the interior mirror to make your judgement.
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OK, these are just a few things to get you started but as you start to take your driving lessons you will quickly realize that there is much more to driving than you originally thought.
OK, so you decided you wish to learn to drive, learning to drive gives you an opportunity to learn a completely new skill, a skill that will open a whole new world of independence for you. If you have to wear glasses or contact lenses to read number plates then you must wear them at all times while driving, you will also be required to pass the eyesight test at the beginning of your practical driving test. OK you have actually all the required papers as well as you are legally prepared to take driving lessons, you must also ensure that you have the economic methods to cover the expense of lessons as they can easily be extremely expensive.