How hard can it be??
Discussion
Has anyone else ever watched something driving related, thought it was quite easy, hen had a go to realise it really isn't?
I suddenly have slightly more respect for... bus drivers.
My uni room this year is right above the city's main bus station, and the buses drive in one end, park nose first in 45 degree angled bays on either side, then reverse back out and continue to the other end. I have often observed buses tentativley reversing out at a snails pace when there is clearly a 6 foot gap to the next bus either side of the back end. I had thought the drivers simply had rubbish social awareness...
....until this weekend that is. I had gone gliding again and as we were first to arrive we had to help get everything out, including the mobile launch control. This is a converted 30-foot single decker, and I volunteered to reverse it out. This involved reversing at an angle between a petrol pump and a tractor before swinging the front around to avoid an aeroplane left in the way. Easy, I thought, until I sat in the driving seat and realised you cannot see anything behind you!! Sure, the bus had mirrors but they werent much use, and forget seeing any obstructions out the back screen when it's 5 feet off the floor and miles away from you. I managed it in the end, though with a spotter standing where I could see him in the least useless mirror.
So, has anyone else been suitably humbled by a seemingly simple driving task?
I suddenly have slightly more respect for... bus drivers.
My uni room this year is right above the city's main bus station, and the buses drive in one end, park nose first in 45 degree angled bays on either side, then reverse back out and continue to the other end. I have often observed buses tentativley reversing out at a snails pace when there is clearly a 6 foot gap to the next bus either side of the back end. I had thought the drivers simply had rubbish social awareness...
....until this weekend that is. I had gone gliding again and as we were first to arrive we had to help get everything out, including the mobile launch control. This is a converted 30-foot single decker, and I volunteered to reverse it out. This involved reversing at an angle between a petrol pump and a tractor before swinging the front around to avoid an aeroplane left in the way. Easy, I thought, until I sat in the driving seat and realised you cannot see anything behind you!! Sure, the bus had mirrors but they werent much use, and forget seeing any obstructions out the back screen when it's 5 feet off the floor and miles away from you. I managed it in the end, though with a spotter standing where I could see him in the least useless mirror.
So, has anyone else been suitably humbled by a seemingly simple driving task?
A similar visibility story, albeit a smaller vehicle.
I'd had my license for about 9 months so was already a driving god. A friend was moving flat and I jumped at the chance to drive my first Transit van. Everything was great until I tried to reverse out of a driveway and suddenly realsed that reversing with a bulkhead behind me meant reversing was more an act of faith than judgement. It took an embarrassingly long length of time and caused a well deserved ego pop!
The real revelation came about two days when recalling just how hard it had been to reverse a small Transit I then watched a Supermarket delivery driver reverse an artic around a residential street corner, with parked cars all around, into a loading bay. Still impressed every time I see a large artic maneuvered into seemingly impossible spaces.
I'd had my license for about 9 months so was already a driving god. A friend was moving flat and I jumped at the chance to drive my first Transit van. Everything was great until I tried to reverse out of a driveway and suddenly realsed that reversing with a bulkhead behind me meant reversing was more an act of faith than judgement. It took an embarrassingly long length of time and caused a well deserved ego pop!
The real revelation came about two days when recalling just how hard it had been to reverse a small Transit I then watched a Supermarket delivery driver reverse an artic around a residential street corner, with parked cars all around, into a loading bay. Still impressed every time I see a large artic maneuvered into seemingly impossible spaces.
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