This morning's driving session went rather well. We even managed to get around an accident by driving through a Wal-Mart parking lot, though it took the combined efforts of me, my instructor, and the trainer-in-training that were in the truck. I feel pretty confident driving around town now; I'm not perfect and not overconfident, but I'm no longer afraid to get behind the wheel. I even parked the truck and trailer in the yard without a problem, though it took two or three tries to get everything lined up just right.
After lunch, it was back for more sims and labs work. This time I went outside to the labs first for a discussion of carrying containers, like the ones off of ships or trains. Those things look really unstable, since there's a fairly small frame holding up the container, which alone weighs 3000 pounds more than the normal trailer. In the time I had left before getting in the simulator, a couple other students helped me through the pre-trip checks; the only thing left that I'm having any real trouble with are the components within the engine, but given two or three more runs through it, I should have it down as well.
That leaves the sims, which were last, and simply infuriating. The first sim involved driving through a warehouse with nearly no clearance on either side. We're talking about having about 10 feet of clearance to drive the nine-foot-wide truck and trailer on through. I wouldn't have felt comfortable driving my car through there due to the tight quarters, and I had three collisions while going through, one of them because the instructor told me to go the wrong way around an obstacle.
The second simulation involved inner-city driving, complete with right-angle corners and accidents. The were so tight that I couldn't get around them even taking up the entire road (yes, even clinging to the left curb), while the accidents were simply impossible to navigate even by car, much less by truck. On a two-lane road, with a fire truck on one side and an ambulance on the other, you're not getting a truck through there. Period. Having an instructor shouting at me wasn't helping either. He kept saying he could drive through there without hitting anything; I just about had the nerve to stand up there and tell him to do it or actually be helpful instead of just yelling at me. I'm still quite angry about it and I just walked out after one more collision; if I ever get stuck in a situation like that, I'm finding another route. :p
Well., sounds to me that these sims are just simulating the worst of the worst. I mean come on now, if you really were bloxked by a Fire Engine and an Ambulance in real life, and there was no way around anyway, would you really even attempt to.
ReplyDeleteOn a brighter note my Dad is gonna show me the inside of his truck on Saturday. So umm, i should have a pretty good head start with some instruction from a 22 year veteran.
I mean if he's driven 22 years with only a few moving violations and no collisions, yeah.