Automatic Driving Lessons In North Dublin Cockpit Drill
After the under the bonnet checks, the tester will ask you to sit in the car. When you sit in the car, the tester will ask you to demonstrate a few simple tasks. The tester will remain outside the car and ask you to turn on your parking light, dipped headlights and full beams. They will ask you to demonstrate both your indicators from the front, left and right. The tester will then walk to the back of your car. As they walk to the back, they are examining your tyres and making sure the car is safe. From the back of the car, they will again ask you to turn on your backlights, demonstrate both indicators and also ask you the press the brake pedal. The tester is checking that all your bulbs are in working order and you also know how to use these controls when they are needed. If you do not know how to use these controls are any bulb is not working, your driving test will be terminated.
Now the tester will get into the car beside you. This is where the tester will ask you to demonstrate the secondary controls and also the cockpit drill. The cockpit drill is basically knowing that you are safe and secure before you start the engine. We naturally do these checks without thinking about them, but you must be able to explain them and why we do them. It is good to rehearse your answers and answer them in an order you can remember.
The first part of the cockpit drill is making sure your door is closed securely. I can’t stress this enough. That is the first part of the cockpit drill and if the tester asks you to explain the cockpit drill I would start here. You can explain to the tester that you would make sure my door is closed securely to avoid it opening while driving.
After we say that the door is closed securely, we would talk about our seat position. We would say that we would adjust our seat so that we can see out the windows, reach the pedals comfortably and also be able to reach the steering wheel comfortably.
As you can see from the diagram, we would have a gentle bend in the elbows and gentle bend in the knees. You don’t want to be reaching the pedals or stretching out to the steering wheel. This can be very uncomfortable and can be dangerous. It is essential that you can see out the windows and reach the controls.
After the seat is in position, it is time to adjust the mirrors. We always adjust our mirrors after we adjust the seat. First, we adjust the inside mirror. We can hold it with both hands and gently adjust it so that you can see out the whole back window
This is an excellent diagram as it shows in the interior mirror the whole of the back window and also you can see the rim of the inside of your own car. This is a perfect position as you can see everything out your back window. Next is the wing mirrors. All cars are different and usually there is a toggle on the driver’s door that is used to adjust the wing mirrors. We would adjust the wing mirrors so that we can see the back corner of our own car, usually aim for the back door handle. This is the perfect position to get the best view of traffic behind.
After we have adjusted our mirrors, we would simply say “from here I would check to see if my car is in neutral and that my handbrake is up.” If you are driving an automatic, instead of having the car in neutral, you would say “I would make sure my car is in Park mode.” We do this to make sure the car is secured for when we start the engine. If the car is in gear and we don’t check this and turn the key the car will jump forward. This could be disastrous for your test.
Last on the cockpit drill is your seatbelt. Always wear your seat belt and always make sure it is fastened securely. Now that you have explained all these the tester will ask you to start the ignition and you are ready to drive.
