Practicing stopping, reversing, 3-pt turns, etc on a hill

iguana

I'm up to lesson 8 on the EDT but unfortunately getting very little opportunity to practise between lessons. However I can practise the above manoeuvres on my driveway at night after my son is in bed, as my drive is just big enough to turn the car fully on and long enough for me to drive up and down it enough to practise smoothly stopping and nudging forward.

The only thing is that the gradient of my drive is steep enough to have a sometimes dramatic effect on the way the car moves and I find I'm avoiding touching the accelerator at all, even when starting the car. Is this a huge mistake? Am I setting myself up for a very bad habit or damaging the car? If I am I'll correct the habit but I am a bit nervous about going too fast on my drive as the turns are extremely tight due to it being shaped oddly in places and having a very stupid low down pillar sticking right into what appears to be a clear area from the car.

Dravokivich

Keep in first and don't use the throttle so. Cover the break with your right foot and press when needed to manage the speed of the car.

When starting off a session with my ADI, he has the car parked up on a slope outside the road from me (Within a housing estate). I do a bit of clutch control while easing off the brakes, then when ready start using the throttle.

Might be something to ask your ADI about. Or check with a friend if they can show you it.

iguana

Thanks. I got my dad to sit with me for a few minutes yesterday while I practised some v. tight parallel parking and he said that if the car moves easily without revving the engine that it's fine. I'll double check with my instructor on Wednesday. It's actually amazing how much just doing this on the driveway has improved my control over the car in these manoeuvres. It's not easy to turn a car on my driveway, so I need to be absolutely precise to manage it. And I like to park my car reversed into the one very tight spot on my drive that allows space for a second car to turn, my dad usually gets parks it there for me but I did it myself yesterday. Literally before I did it I sat down for half an hour with a toy tractor of my son's that steers like a real car and practised getting it into a similar spot I'd marked on the floor, so I could work out exactly how and when I'd need to turn the wheel while reversing/going forward.:o But it paid off and I managed it really smoothly. My dad watched me in case I got stuck/reversed into my house and said that in his experience there are people who have been driving for 30 years who couldn't get a car in there!

So I'm going to try to make sure to get an hour of practise every day until it feels natural. I haven't done parallel parking yet with my instructor so hopefully I'll be able to shock him with the fruits of my practice when we do that lesson.:D