Dave Smith was successful on his advanced test yesterday and passed with a very commendable drive. His examiner said that Dave “made safe and legal progress throughout with spoken thought demonstrated from the start. Appropriate signals were given to inform road other users of his intentions and excellent courtesy also demonstrated.”
Dave was very pleased and said afterwards “My experience with GAM was very positive. I never had any formal instruction to drive a car. I had passed my driving test in 1965 (first attempt in a friend’s Morris Cowley with column shift after 4 practices with my school friend who had only passed his test the month before). All my driving habits were self taught and cemented into unconscious muscle reflex after 60 years of practice. Your GAM observers / instructors had the almost impossible task of teaching a very old dog some new tricks. I had developed a brake+gear change overlap technique which allowed me to bleed speed off as I turned into a bend / corner. It took a lot of practice to change the habit to finish braking before turning the wheel.
I found verbalising my thoughts as we drove quite demanding. I hardly ever speak when I’m driving – preferring just to listen to the radio. Spoken thoughts occupied the only spare brain cell I still had remaining.
I must congratulate all the instructors / observers (I must have terrified during my 2 year journey) for their patience.
No problem, Dave, we are pleased to help, and we all congratulate you on your efforts and a great result.