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On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:45:36 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> - The correct way to get traction is to turn the wheels as slowly as
>>> possible, not spin them at maximum power.
>>
>> Yes, that is correct. Spinning the wheels will generally dig you in
>> deeper.
>
> And yet, the girl we helped had her big, powerful BWM running at maximum
> revs. Perhaps she thinks if she revs it fast enough, eventually it will
> have some effect?
Well, yeah, a lot of people have mistaken ideas about a lot of different
topics.
I suppose the logic is that if you dig in deep enough, you'll hit the
real ground and the car will have enough momentum to jump out of the
hole. That can happen, but it also can be quite dangerous.
> (Logically, if you spin the wheels long enough, you'll dig down to where
> the road is. Unfortunately, you now have to drive up a rather big hill
> to go anywhere...)
Yep (guess I should've read a bit further, eh?)
>>> - If your car skids, turn into the direction of the skid.
>>
>> Correct, but you have to be careful not to over-correct, lest you hit a
>> dry patch on the road and spin the car. I did that and ended up in the
>> ditch, once - after doing a 360 in one direction and then a 720 in the
>> opposite.
>
> Well, the incidents I whitnessed today all happened at around 5 MPH or
> less.
Yeah, it doesn't take much. I spun out going onto a motorway, hit a
patch of black ice while accelerating, and then overcorrected.
Experience is a good teacher, but some things shouldn't need to be
experienced. ;-)
>> Well, brakes tend to be "on or off", if you don't have ABS, pumping the
>> brake pedal generally works well, but also if you can drop to a lower
>> gear, do that. Don't do anything that would normally cause a fast
>> change in speed because you'll lose control.
>
> So not "OMG, I'm skidding, MAXIMUM BRAKES!!" then?
Exactly. Yet a lot of people's instinct is to slam on the brakes. It's
not always a conscious thing, though - and it's the sort of thing you
have to be aware of as it happens.
There's been a couple of very public examples of not freaking out under
extreme life-threatening pressure lately: The guy who was in a tandem
skydiving jump when his instructor had a heart attack and died, and the
plane that went down in the Hudson river.
In both cases, the person in control (the student jumper in the skydiving
incident, the pilot in the Hudson incident) didn't freak out, but
remained calm. The skydiving student had military training and that just
kinda kicked in from the reports I've read of his account. The pilot did
ditch the plane in the river - which given the situation was better than
hitting a residential section, and he managed to keep the plane level.
IIRC there were some minor injuries, but all 55 passengers and the crew
survived his "water landing".
This same need to remain calm carries into driving on slippery roads.
You need a good situational awareness as well - keeping yourself from
skidding out of control does little good if some lunatic runs into you
because they're not there.
The best place to be when the roads are slick is not on the roads,
obviously, but keeping an eye out all around (which requires very intense
concentration IME) is important so if someone's driving like a lunatic,
you're not in their way by the time they get to you.
>>> - If you need to go up hill, do it fast so the momentum will carry you
>>> over. (I saw lots of people slowing down for the hills in case they
>>> skid, or trying to go up a hill from a stationary position.)
>>
>> It depends on the hill. If you go fast and there's a stop sign at the
>> top of the hill, your chances of blowing through the intersection are
>> really good, and there's always a chance when you do that of running
>> into cross traffic if it's not a 4-way stop.
>
> We're talking about hilly country roads that go on for miles without any
> junctions.
Well, having driven on country roads such as you describe in England, I
observed that they rarely have long straight stretches; going fast on a
slippery winding road also doesn't help.
Actually, there's a drive I took in New York State (north of NYC) where I
was teaching a class a few years ago. Ran into slippery, winding, snow-
packed country roads to get to the site (a school, oddly enough), and the
rental car was from Georgia with all-purpose tires (not winter driving
tires). It took me about 90 minutes to go 10 miles, I just put the car
in low gear and let the engine do the work, giving it very little gas the
entire way.
Up hills, down hills, around corners, etc. Fast wouldn't have helped
there because of the lay of the roads.
>> The important thing when driving on ice is to not make any sudden
>> changes - sudden turns, slamming on the brakes, fast acceleration - all
>> of these can cause a loss of control.
>
> And yet, almost every person I observed either immediately slammed on
> the brakes, or started wildly trying to correct the steering.
Yep. Every year at the beginning of the winter season, I observe what
I've come to term "vehicular darwinism" - people with big 4x4 vehicles
driving like lunatics and letting their instincts/reactions guide them
straight off the road. Sometimes with very bad results, usually with
slightly bad results.
> Jesus, people don't know how to drive in the snow... And this is...
> England?? O_O
Well, your weather tends to be pretty moderate; driving on snow and ice
is something that can improve with practice, but in England you don't get
a lot of practice.
I learned to drive on packed snow and ice - and when you're doing your
behind-the-wheel instruction in those circumstances, the experience is
very different. There were days my entire lesson was "get the car from
the high school to your house" (about 15 miles).
Learning to drive in that situation also had a downside - I couldn't
correctly judge stopping distances on dry pavement properly because I'd
had no practice at it at all. I learned quickly, of course, but the
first time I tried to stop on dry ice-free roads was interesting, and
even kinda funny. Fortunately, I didn't run into anything/anyone.
Jim
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