I now have total sympathy for White Van Man.
On saturday I took a load of cadets over to RAF Woodvale to fly. The transport was a 16 seat ford transit, extra long. First time I have ever driven something bigger than a car (well, I have driven a tank, but that was off road) and I now appreciate just how different your approach to driving has to be.
Sadly I only managed to do 30 miles before the clutch gave up on me, just at J2 of the M57. Have received a lot of ribbing about that, given it was my first time driving the vehicle.
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How did you find tailgating, swearing and inappropriate gesticulation, frequent use of the horn or incessant flashing of headlights enhanced your driving experience? :)
GJD
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Wasn't on the road long enough to progress to that stage ;-)
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So did your cargo of space cadets get airborne at all?
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Yep. We were only 13 miles from the AEF, so the CO sent two cars to fetch us while the AA took the minibus back to Manchester.
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I was also driving a Transit at the weekend, though mine was a fetching metallic grey.
My clutch lasted for the full 380 miles. I didn't find it too bad, as long as you remember which mirrors to use (the little secondary mirrors on the doors are briliant) and are in the right gear, even on the 75 bhp version.
Basically there are two ways to drive it - use all the acceleration, or have none at all. It does focus your mind on which gear to be in, but apart from that it was actually quite pleasant.
I even attempted paralllel parking and getting it into a car-sized space at Tesco in Hammersmith - yes, it can be done, although I had to squeeze out afterwards. Although I was nervous beforehand, I actually really enjoyed it.
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Also apart from the vehicle side having assisted for a short time in the sort of multi-drop delivery activities that some of these get up to I can appreciate the pressures.
A couple of times was faced with the prospect of making >130 drops in a day.
It takes a very strong will not to let standards fall and at least I didn't have an irate transport manager back at the depot if failed to deliver the goods. Please pardon the pun.
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