Took the swoopy non motorway route to arrive just before the NAM brigade. This year was disappointing in that no historic aircraft flew but this was made up for with a free museum pass. Just shows how much has been added since I last went and everything was in an old hangar. Now there are sparkling glass halls with B17,B52,Blackbird, Typhoon,Liberator and loads more in the US hall plus a land warefare hall complete with a Normandy Experience. Best was an ordinary hangar with the doors open with a Hurricane and F109E in working order just standing there.
Not good news was that one of the NAM observers who taught me a lot was recently nerfed off his K1300GTSE on a local roundabout in a classic SMDNSY incident. He has bruises but the bike has cosmetic damage which on a £12k+ bike can be staggering to fix.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Monday 9 November 2009
Thursday 5 November 2009
IAM bike test pass !
After a year's training on Sundays, with a bit of a gap this summer, I
applied to take The Test a few weeks ago. The examiner contacted me
and requested a selection of dates and today was the one chosen.
I had done a series of Mock Tests, some results were declared as
nearly there, others with very nearly there, one not there at all but
all had the usual positive NAM critique and suggestions on
improvements. So after every Sunday the week's riding has been an
extended practice period to try and bring all the required elements in
to play.Every now and then at the end of a ride I have reckoned that
that was the one. Too bad no examiner saw it.
Well, today was the day to stand up and be counted. I had wished for a
cold, dull day and preferably raining. Reason ? Less traffic, speeds
are lower and expectations of adding " sparkle " to the ride are
lower. Someone must have been listening because just as we met up the
dull grey skies opened and down came the rain. Great.
After a briefing on what was expected off we went. Ethel closely
followed by the examiner's Blackbird.The route went through towns,
shopping areas, villages, open countryside and dual carriageway stuff
with hazards galore on the slippery roads. Having flunked the last
Mock Test when I completely missed the 30 signs in a village and
whizzed straight through at 60 I had decided that today dull would
have to do and stuck rigidly to the indicated speeds even though I
know from the satnav that they are 10% optimistic.
No matter how many times you go out observed it is still an unnerving
experience to be aware that someone is closely watching what you are
doing. I am quite used to being in very close, 1 metre, company with
another bike ( just so long as a qualified IAM rider is aboard ) but
somehow it plays on your mind.
So today was a super legal soggy trundle around for an hour ending up
with a bunch of Grade 1 scores and all the rest at Grade 2 ( scores go
down from 1 to 5 ). Job done !
Thank you everybody at NAM for showing me so much that I never knew
and never letting me forget that, in the words of today's examiner,
when you stop learning you are dead.
applied to take The Test a few weeks ago. The examiner contacted me
and requested a selection of dates and today was the one chosen.
I had done a series of Mock Tests, some results were declared as
nearly there, others with very nearly there, one not there at all but
all had the usual positive NAM critique and suggestions on
improvements. So after every Sunday the week's riding has been an
extended practice period to try and bring all the required elements in
to play.Every now and then at the end of a ride I have reckoned that
that was the one. Too bad no examiner saw it.
Well, today was the day to stand up and be counted. I had wished for a
cold, dull day and preferably raining. Reason ? Less traffic, speeds
are lower and expectations of adding " sparkle " to the ride are
lower. Someone must have been listening because just as we met up the
dull grey skies opened and down came the rain. Great.
After a briefing on what was expected off we went. Ethel closely
followed by the examiner's Blackbird.The route went through towns,
shopping areas, villages, open countryside and dual carriageway stuff
with hazards galore on the slippery roads. Having flunked the last
Mock Test when I completely missed the 30 signs in a village and
whizzed straight through at 60 I had decided that today dull would
have to do and stuck rigidly to the indicated speeds even though I
know from the satnav that they are 10% optimistic.
No matter how many times you go out observed it is still an unnerving
experience to be aware that someone is closely watching what you are
doing. I am quite used to being in very close, 1 metre, company with
another bike ( just so long as a qualified IAM rider is aboard ) but
somehow it plays on your mind.
So today was a super legal soggy trundle around for an hour ending up
with a bunch of Grade 1 scores and all the rest at Grade 2 ( scores go
down from 1 to 5 ). Job done !
Thank you everybody at NAM for showing me so much that I never knew
and never letting me forget that, in the words of today's examiner,
when you stop learning you are dead.
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