Young Drivers

Posted by: Don Atkinson on 30 June 2014

I teach people to fly aeroplanes. Mainly Commercial Pilots and Flight Instructors, but also a few Private Pilots (PPLs).

 

Last year, on his 16th birthday, I sent one of my PPL students on his first solo flight. The minimum age for doing this is 16, so it doesn't happen very often. During the past year he has flown 11 hours on his own as part of his flying training, including several flights of c.100 miles to various airfields around the UK.

 

This morning, on his 17th birthday, that same student passed his final flight test and is now licenced to carry his friends and family on private flights virtually anywhere in the (free) world, in reasonable weather conditions.. The minimum age for doing this is 17, so it doesn't happen very often.

 

Today, on his 17th birthday, he can start learning to drive a car..............

Posted on: 03 July 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by Willy:
Originally Posted by Tony Lockhart:
I only wear a cycling helmet if riding flat out in forests. On the road or bridleway, a waste of time and money, IMHO and that of many others.

A dear friend of mine, cycling in San Diego, swerved to avoid some vagrants under a bridge and came off. Head first into the sidewalk. Despite having the best (Bell) helmet he could buy he spent several months in a coma and came close to being unplugged. Fortunately he's made a near miraculous recovery but I suspect that without a helmet I'd be talking in the past tense about him.

 

I'd never cycle without a helmet. 

 

Willy.

Everyone I know has a similar story of how their helmet really helped them. I have mine. I am very pro-helmet, but actually against helmet laws as they tend to discourage cycling. Better to be on a bike without a helmet than in a car (also without a helmet). Best of all is on a bike with a helmet.

Posted on: 03 July 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by Tony Lockhart:
I only wear a cycling helmet if riding flat out in forests. On the road or bridleway, a waste of time and money, IMHO and that of many others.

Many people are also of the opinion that Justin Bieber's music is "totally freakin' awesome".

Posted on: 03 July 2014 by Tony Lockhart
48 years of cycling, and the only time I wear it is when I'm brushing against trees at 25-40mph. The only injuries I've had are a dislocated thumb and cuts/bruises. Perhaps I'm a star!
Posted on: 03 July 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by Tony Lockhart:
48 years of cycling, and the only time I wear it is when I'm brushing against trees at 25-40mph. The only injuries I've had are a dislocated thumb and cuts/bruises. Perhaps I'm a star!

Clearly you are. I crash my road bike about once every 10 years on average. None of my last three road bikes, spanning a period of about 13 years, has been crashed at all.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/dunc...-20140703-zsuyi.html

 

I'll leave this here.

Posted on: 03 July 2014 by Willy

30 something years ago cycling slowly up Antrim main street the chain came off. I went over the handlebars and headbutted a 45 gallon oil drum full of concrete*. This of course all in pre-cycling helmet days. I was knocked out but came too and was able to walk home. Accidents happen so I see cycling without a helmet as an unnecessary risk. 

 

Regards,

 

Willy. 

 

* In those days the streets of many NI towns were lined will oil drums filled with concrete and scaffolding poles between them. Intent was to prevent people parking car bombs too close to the shops.

 

Posted on: 03 July 2014 by Tony Lockhart
Yeah. I find the 25 metre rule so reassuring.  
Posted on: 04 July 2014 by SmauG
Originally Posted by winkyincanada:
Originally Posted by SmauG:
 



I'm 28 of age, and drive about  700 rush-hour-KM's every week.

 

You really need to re-think your life, buddy. It is too short for that sort of soul-destroying situation.

 I do enjoy my current employment and just moved house a little closer.

 

A good car stereo system which i thouroughly enjoy does make the difference (i don't drive a Bentley though )

Posted on: 04 July 2014 by Tarquin Maynard - Portly
Originally Posted by Char Wallah:
Cyclists without helmets are the same as women wearing a mini skirt - they're both asking for it imho.

 

Assuming you're not joking, that is one of the most crassly misogynistic and stupid lines I've ever seen posted on t'internet.

 

Seriously. 

Posted on: 04 July 2014 by Tarquin Maynard - Portly
Originally Posted by Char Wallah:

How does viewing ladies who wear short miniskirts as p###k teasing attention seekers, make me an anti-feminist? There have been many an accident involving cyclists who have been distracted by someone wiggling their bum at them.

When in a hole, its best to stop digging.

 

You really are making yourself look astonishingly crass. 

Posted on: 09 July 2014 by lutyens
I think distasteful is the word that comes to mind.......and with each subsequent answer. Which is a shame.
Posted on: 09 July 2014 by winkyincanada

http://www.nsnews.com/news/wes...-collision-1.1198936

 

This happened along my commuting route earlier this week. It isn't just young drivers. This idiot woman, in spite of apparently not being able to see, turned across the oncoming traffic lane at such speed she managed to bounce a cyclist 15m and throw his bike up a pole.

 

Of course, her punishment is simply a ticket for failing to yield. No dangerous driving charges or anything at all the reflects her abject failure to accept the true responsibility of piloting a 2-tonne vehicle at lethal speeds around our roads. In other news, a cyclist elsewhere rolled through a stop sign, injuring no-one (but that's the behaviour that is actually being targeted by police).

Posted on: 09 July 2014 by DrMark

Oh I imagine there will be a civil penalty as well - there should be.  The cyclist is likely getting mail from attorneys as we write here.  So her troubles are only beginning with the citation...

Posted on: 10 July 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by DrMark:

Oh I imagine there will be a civil penalty as well - there should be.  The cyclist is likely getting mail from attorneys as we write here.  So her troubles are only beginning with the citation...

I rode past the intersection yesterday evening (going in the same direction as the car. It was about the same time (6:00pm). Just before the crash, the cyclist would have popped out of some dark shade covering a third of the road. I can understand how he would have been difficult to see as the rest of the road was in bright sunlight. Not exactly true that "the sun was in her eyes" but difficult lighting, for sure. All the more reason for motorists to drive with due care.