Welcome Tom. I really look forward to helping you to not only prepare for your restricted driving test, but to help you to become a safe and confident driver.
Lesson #3 Tuesday 22.11.22 8am
note: Tom cancelled lesson as Sharon was en route at 8am
I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson once arranged
Lesson #2 – Thursday 10.11.22 2pm until 3.30pm
A solid second lesson today Tom. The hybrid car suits you and you began to get used to steep hill starts. Please practice using your handbrake as much as possible as you will need it throughout your driving life. Practice putting it on and removing smoothly using your accelerator at the same time as you release the hand or park brake. Head checks are starting to become a routine which is great to see, however, please try and practice a quick check so as not to lose focus on what is happening in front of you or worse still, that your steering runs away with you. Gap selection is good but keep practicing this as it is essential to safe pulling out of a road or intersection. Roundabouts initially can be stressful but you just need to practice – here are a couple of videos to help as well as the three-point turn and parallel parking we will do a little more of next time including motorway driving.
Lesson #1 – Wednesday 26.10.22 4pm
Hello Tom, it was great to meet you for your first lesson/assessment of where you are in your driving journey. Thank you for allowing me to help you as you navigate towards your restricted. you’ve done really well and I think that’s what you should focus on – you’ve got a really good driver skillset. However, feedback is all about what you can work further on, as my role is to get you to the point where you can pass your restricted confidently and also as we discussed, enjoy the driving experience.
When we met yesterday, probably a little bit of time was wasted in the fact of not having the learner stickers on, so I just want to make a point that when we meet next time it’s really important to be ready to go. 90 minutes is a great chunk of time to actually be out on the road and to take in the instruction that you’re going to need. We talked about you booking your restricted test, in mid to later December I would imagine. If you can do that, let me know, some of the locations I would probably suggest is you stay away from Westgate/Massey, however Glenn Innes, Albany, New Lynn – they all seem to be fine.
So my feedback is, as I’ve said, good driver skill. We did a lot of work around your driver position, and although your hybrid vehicle isn’t ready – and that’s going to make a big difference obviously, because that’s going to become your car, your comfort zone – it really is important to make sure that any car that you go into you make sure that your driver position is correct. Your head shouldn’t be bobbing around looking into mirrors, and you should be able to hold the wheel in a nice comfortable 9-3 position, and should have a slight bend in your arm. You should be as high as you can without hitting your head on the ceiling, so that you can see out of the window, but be far enough back to not have your legs scrunched up. Hence why the steering rack can sometimes be moved to accommodate all of that. So that was a really good learning for you moving forward
Now I do feel that you struggle a little bit with not yet being confident to enjoy driving, so I really want to work on that with you, so next time let’s get your mindset to “yeah, I’m entitled to be on the road and enjoy myself!” So I’ll give you some strategies around that because that will help when you actually go for the test.
What I would say is that we discussed about steering, you can use the overarm technique, and you can use the push-pull. Think of holding a dinner plate – in fact, you should get hold of a dinner plate in the kitchen, and practice how you would turn the dinner plate continuously around and around without dropping it, and that is exactly what the push and pull method is. And as discussed, push and pull is really good for those easy round town maneuverings, nice big corners on a rural road – but the overarm technique is for your tighter maneuvering. So pulling hard right into a driveway is probably best with the overarm technique. Note that you can use a combination of both.
We talked about head checks at length, and that blindspot, and what I want you to think about practicing now, is how you can look over towards the back rear of each of your rear seats – that is where your cyclist is going to hit you – and how you can grasp that information with your eyes, as you’re turning in somewhere, whether it’s merging into a right flush median, or indeed turning left, or leaving a roundabout. Think about how you garner that information and gather it quickly with your eyes without losing that steering, or indeed the information you have at the front of the vehicle, and how that environment can change. So as you’re moving along in your practice before I see you next – a lot of head checks. Gotta practice them. You can’t do too many. And then by the time I see you next we will then fine tune that.
We also looked at the triangle that is the giveway symbol at roundabouts and junctions. There’s only two options: there’s either stop completely at a stop sign, which you have to, and then you count to 3 secs and then go if it’s clear, or a giveway. You don’t necessarily need to stop at a giveway that’s the whole point of a giveaway. So you’re using the triangle as your assessment tool as you’re coming in, that’s where you begin your crawl, your walking speed, so that you are looking to the right, is there anything coming, no, heading out nicely. So I really want you to practice that. I want you to also factor in your speed management, and how you can just flick your eyes to your speedo and up, flick your eyes to your speedo and up, and maintain.
And then the only other thing I want you to work on is I want you to now in your practice, whoever you’re with, driving, tell them what you’re seeing as far as your hazards, especially non-moving hazards. All your road signs, ie, speed bump coming up – so I want you to name it and quickly say what you’re going to do about it – speed bump coming up, 25, reducing speed. Cars at my rear, I know they’re there. Cars oncoming, keeping left. So I want you to notice all the signage, whether it’s a temporary 30 you’re going in to, whether its a 50 sign, whether its a right hand bend, because I want you to get used to looking at the structure of the street furniture – all the signs – so that you know how to deal with them, because that will be imperative on the test.
And I just want to reiterate that this is not criticism, it is just feedback. Because you’re doing fantastic. Go and book your test with confidence and I’ll see you again soon. I’ll send you some suggestions through for times.
This is a record of your progress and must be kept by us on your behalf for 12 months and when added to your lesson plans forms the overall training plan.
Student Name
Lesson Date
Lesson Plan #
Subjects Covered
Seat adjustment
Instruments & controls
Pre-drive checks
Signals
Moving off (straight)
Stopping
Directional control
Moving of (at angle)
Basic gear changing
Speed control
Moving off (uphill)
Moving off (downhill)
Parking on a hill
Gears on hills
Head checks
Stopping times
2 & 4 second rule
Lane driving
12-6-3 Second scans
Hazard awareness
Decision techniques
Amber lights
Priority rules
Blocking rule
Gap selection
Roundabouts
Decision rechecks
Vehicle dynamics
Cornering techniques
Open road driving
Motorway driving
Low-speed control
Three-point turn
“U” turns
Reversing (straight)
Reversing (left corner)
Reversing (driveway)
Parallel parking
Angle parking
Night driving (optional)
Pre-test practice
Developing a training plan with you is where we begin once you have your theory learner test behind you.
Your training plan will be a structured and logical sequence of progressive lesson plans with the provision for the review of your progress as we go.
Each lesson plan will have its own TRAINING OBJECTIVE which will outline what you will achieve as a result of the session along with the STANDARD to which you need to perform the task and the conditions under which the performance will be assessed along with the RESOURCES that will need to be supplied.
How we deliver our knowledge to you is through three main methods
Controlled Practice – This is where your tutor will carry out the manoeuvre with a full verbal description as we go a couple of times so you have a chance to observe and feel comfortable trying it yourself.
Prompted Practice – Once you are comfortable, you can then try the manoeuvre whilst your tutor prompts you with a word here and there as a reminder as you concentrate on carrying out your manoeuvre
Transferred Responsibility – Yay – this is the bit you get to do it yourself and practice.
The following behaviors will not be tolerated by either the tutor or the student or any staff member of ALL TERRAIN DRIVING ACADEMY
Sharon is very experienced when it comes to driver education. An NZTA approved driving instructor, a defensive driving instructor in STREETALK and a member of the New Zealand Institute of Driving Educators and a fully qualified assessor carrying out driver assessments for various NZ government organisations. Sharon is an off road driver trainer too, so you are in experience and patient hands.
You can contact Sharon on 021 029 28023 ( a text is always better) if you have any questions.
Learning To Be A Model Driver
On & Off Road
Off Road Helps Your On Road Knowledge
Modern Day Learning Techniques / Up To Date Tech
