Red Mist_imp said:
I don't know what ATTGATT is. I don't know what any acronyms are because they're too hard to remember.
I appreciate all the instructors coming up with all these acronyms, but acronyms (pilots, please help me out here) are only useful when you have time to check off each item, such as when flying a plane.
If a rider has to try to remember all kinds of tricks and gimmicks to ride safely and skillfully, in my opinion there's a problem.
In flying, we have checklists for certain phases of flight. But when the stick-and-rudder skill really come into play, as during a takeoff once we get permission to roll, or during the landing phase after we start to lower the flaps and adjust power, nobody's reciting acronyms. We are flying the plane.
The contrast here is that while you're riding a motorcycle, you are ALWAYS landing. There's not time for checklists and gimmicks. It's ALWAYS stick-and-rudder time, so to speak.
The best place to get your skill levels cranked up is on some kind of closed course, whether it be the Advanced Rider Course, a track day/riding school, or some other venue. Our reactions have to be instantaneous. No one ever learned to ride a motorcycle in a classroom.
You want to keep riding? Do one of these skill-building options.
Good call Red Mist, if you take the training you know not only your limitations but also your capabilities. Knowledge is the power that dispels the fear of the unknown. Turning hard into a corner the mind's focus should be on entry point, line, looking through, exiting etc., not being distracted by the fear brought about by "@&$: I hope I can make this". Most of us old farts learnt the hard way, by watching yourself or your mates riding the roads of triumph or despair, or on a very few occasions, tragedy. Any new rider, once comfortable with the bike, (that is being able to get it on to the centre stand :dodgy: ) , should take an appropriate level of Advanced Rider Course. Anyone returning to riding would also be well advised to do so. After all, you ain't eighteen any more. I returned to riding in '93 and it was '05 before I decided, out of curiosity, to do an instructed track day. I learnt things that day that would have stood me in good stead over the previous 12 years. Shoulda done it earlier. They didn't run them in '62.
Quote:In flying, we have checklists for certain phases of flight. But when the stick-and-rudder skill really come into play, as during a takeoff once we get permission to roll, or during the landing phase after we start to lower the flaps and adjust power, nobody's reciting acronyms. We are flying the plane.
Nice simile and I get your point. However, sigh, the world of aviation is full of acronyms or mnemonic acronyms. The simple PTO mnemonic acronym of GUMPS or the other, more complex pure acronym TTMPFFIHHC* get the light aircraft pilot airborne. The modern Airbus (or Boeing) pilot has to be familiar with many, many acronyms ranging from ADIRU, through FMGES, all the way to VαPROT. There are hundreds to choose from if you want to operate in that world. It's like talking bloody Swahili!
Cheers
*Trims Tighten (throttle friction) Mixture Propellor Fuel Flaps Instruments Hatches Harness and Controls. It pisses me off that that is still there from 1966 but I don't remember where I parked the CB (on centre stand) twenty minutes ago.
art of some never ending historical slide?. I am afraid so.
