SCUNTHORPE AND GRIMSBY NEWSLETTER
August 2019 Issue 5
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Contents Hello & Welcome………………………………………. 2 AdLad………………………………………………………… 2 Welcome to our New Members…………………. 2 Date for the Diary………………………………………. 3 We Got Mail!...... 3 Become and Advanced Driver……………………. 4 Advertising in our Newsletter…………………….. 4 SAGAM Team Members…………………………….. 5 Chairman’s Chatter……………………………………. 6 Treasurers Annual Report………………………….. 6 Annual Balance Sheet………………………………… 7 Meet your Committee!...... 8 Social Night……………………………………………….. 8 Congratulations!...... 10 Discount Offer……………………………………………. 10 Caught My Eye - Tesla………………………………… 11 999 Rescue Day…………………………………………. 16 My Story……………………………………………………. 17
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Hello and welcome to the August edition of the SAGAM newsletter!
I can’t believe that this year has gone so quick and we are in August already! Where has the time gone? - I guess it’s true what they say, that the older you get the more quickly time goes. So, I hope you enjoyed the May edition and are looking forward to reading this edition too. I’ve had quite an exciting time over the last few months and have included a write up of the day I rode in a fire engine down the A180 – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Now we are sending the majority of the newsletters by email, it’s going to be better for the group as we will be saving quite a lot on postage and mileage! Many thanks to those of you who have been in touch to let me know your preferences.
Did you find the Ad Lad in the last edition?………. he was in the bottom right hand corner of the photo of the Ford Focus in the ‘Caught my Eye’ article. Have a good look through, for him in this edition……. Can you find him?
To our New Members:
Lilly Ann Blades, Rose Jobson, PAUL EGGLETON, THOMAS lINCE
This Photo by Unknown Author is
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Dates for the diary
Your newsletters for the rest of this year will be distributed as follows:
November 2019 (Please make sure any articles are submitted before 15th October 2019) I am always glad of any articles you think our members may enjoy reading, so please feel free to send them in to me at [email protected]
And the dates for our 2019 Social Evenings are: AUGUST 28th SAFER ROADS HUMBER (IN THE CONCERT ROOM) OCTOBER 23rd BARRIE HEATH QUIZ NIGHT
We got Mail!
You can email, tweet or post a letter to the following addresses; Terry Heath, 48, Vicarage Ave, Wrawby, Brigg North Lincs. DN20 8RY Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ANDGRIMSBY
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BECOME AN ADVANCED DRIVER
The price for the Skill for Life package is £149.00
We currently have an offer on whereby after completing the test successfully, you will receive £25 back. To receive your application form please send your name and contact details along with your payment to: Mr M Gothard 7, West Green Messingham North Lincs DN17 3QT
Cheques should be made payable to: The Institute of Advanced Motorists
For more information contact: Terry Heath on: 01652 655601 or visit our website www.scunthorpegrimsbyadvancedmotorists.org
Advertising in our Newsletter
If anyone would like to advertise in our newsletters please contact Jan Burditt on 07831 170678 or email [email protected]
The cost of advertising is: Full page - £40.00 Half page - £20.00 Costs are per annum and will there will be four quarterly issues
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The IAM Scunthorpe & Grimsby Team Members CHAIRMAN and CHIEF OBSERVER Terry Heath Tel: 01652 655601 Email – [email protected]
VICE-CHAIRMAN The views and opinions Paul Johnson expressed in this newsletter Tel: 01724 721156 are those of the individual writers and not necessarily TREASURER of the IAM, nor the Scunthorpe Malcolm Gothard and Grimsby group. Tel: 01724 764237
SCERETARY Dawn Kitching Tel: 01724 875276
Mick Harris GDPR Tel: 01724 531625
Paul Johnson MDU/EVENTS/GROUP CONTACT Tel: 01724 721156
Allen Hardman CH. OBS Tel: 01472 813231
ASSOCIATE COORDNATOR John Wigmore Tel: 07751608127
MAGAZINE PUBLISHER MAGAZINE EDITOR Jan Burditt Jan Burditt Tel: 07834170678 email: [email protected]
WEBMASTER Ian Greenbeck Email: [email protected]
OBSERVER TRAINING OFFICER Sue Harris Tel: 01469 531625
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Chairman’s Chatter
Hi folks, once again it’s time for me to rattle on for a bit, so here goes. The main thing I want to do is to update you on a few things.
Since I did a chairman’s report for the A G M in June, we’ve been to 7 Lakes Rescue day at Crowle, and what a fantastic day we had there. We are now offering a discount to anyone who joins on the day, and instead of paying £149.00. we offer the full IAM RoadSmart course for £120.00, which is a good discount by any standards.
As the day went on, we had 10 people, showing a lot interest in the course, 2 of which actually joined on the day. We had a brilliant team talking to people and helping with all sorts of things, so a big thank you to everyone. Also, we had an extra crowd puller, in the shape of a reaction tester. It was so very popular, and so well received. I would like to offer a great big thank you to our master electronic engineer, Allen Hardman, who worked very hard to get this up and running in time for the Rescue day...
Our next big outing will be at Waltham windmill, where we will be the guests of Grimsby & Cleethorpes. Model engineering society, on 24th. 25th, & 26th August.
There will be loads going on there and we will hopefully be recruiting some more members for the group. Paul Johnson (01724 721 156) is manning this event up, so why not give him a call if you think you can help.
One more thing for you to watch out for, is Mike Mason is going to be collating and conducting a group questionnaire. Please take the time to read it, and answer it.
We need your opinions and suggestions. Without them we’re guessing at what you want. So, if you tell us, we can try our best to work with you to achieve a good outcome, to your suggestions. This is YOUR group after all. Thank you everyone.
Drive safely, Terry Heath. Chairman S A G A M
Treasurer’s Annual Report 2019 As required by IAM rules the accounts have now been examined by an auditor and approved by the committee.
I have taken the opportunity afforded by the formation of a new group to change the presentation of the accounts to that typical of a small charity and the one used by the former Grimsby and Louth group. This format gives more detail than the old one and is easier to understand.
This is the first accounts sheet of the new group and only covers from when the group was formed in June 2018 to April 2019. There is therefore no previous year with which to compare. Having said that, the income and expenditure are similar in most categories to those of the old Scunthorpe group. Notable exceptions are the £590 transfer of funds from the Grimsby and Louth group and the insurance being for two years instead of the usual one year.
As can be seen, the cost of the newsletters, including postage and printing, is a major item of expenditure, hence the move to emailing them wherever agreed with individual members.
Finally, I would like to thank Dawn for organising an auditor for us, Jan for taking over the distribution and posting of newsletters as well as editing it, Vivien for running the raffle and, of course everyone for renewing their membership.
At the end of the financial year membership stood at 130.
Malcolm Gothard. 7
Scunthorpe and Grimsby Group of Advanced Motorists
Annual Balance Sheet
Income and Expenditure Accounts to 31st March 2019
INCOME 2018-2019 EXPENDITURE 2018-2019
Members' Subscriptions 536.00 Postage 78.21 Subscriptions paid in advance 20.00 Telephone 11.00 Group Shop Sales 21.39 Stationery 40th Anniversary CD Sale 3.00 Traffic Sign Cards 80.00 Contributions to Buffet 100.00 Membership Cards 40.00 GiftAid 120.00 Printer Cartridges 31.50 Grimsby Group Funds Transfer 589.96 Raffle Prizes 27.06 Raffle 136.00 Buffet 150.00 Donation 50.00 Speakers' Fees 105.00 Newsletters Postage 98.52 Stationery 20.70 Printer Cartridges 50.95 Delivery Mileage 12.40 SfL Course Refund 149.00 SfL Course Subsidy 24.00 Mobile Display Unit Keys 15.00 Wheel Clamp 31.99 Towing Mileage 78.40 Cleaning 20.00 Precinct Access Fee 75.00 Sundries 3.25 GDPR Fee 40.00 Insurance 274.00
TOTAL 1576.35 TOTAL 1415.98
Opening Balance 2659.85 Total Income 1576.35 Total Expenditure -1415.98 Closing Balance 2820.22
Closing Bank Balance 2762.47 Closing Cash Balance 57.75 Total 2820.22
The above income and expenditure account has been examined without carrying out an audit from the books and records of "Scunthorpe and Grimsby Advanced Motorists Group" and information supplied by me Malcolm Gothard (Treasurer)
Signed ...... Date..... Date
Approved by the SAGAM committee
Signed...... Date....
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Meet your Committee!
Photo kindly supplied by Peter Batty
From Right to Left; - Speaker from our Social Night on 26th June 2019 Terry Heath – Chairman Malcolm Gothard – Treasurer Dawn Kitching – Secretary Paul Johnson – Events Organiser and Group Contact Mike Mason – Committee Member Jan Burditt – Committee Member
Also in the picture, is Peter Serhatlic (stood next to Terry) who was the speaker at our Social Night on the 26th June. Peter is our regional service delivery manager and talked about various items including relaying some interesting tales regarding his career as a police traffic officer! He also informed us that IAM RoadSmart has a new Chairman – Andy Barrett who is the head of Ford UK. As SAGAM was unable to get a representative to a Forum that Peter held recently, he gave a brief update on the basics from that event, as well as about the organisation now being 62 years old and how IAM RoadSmart is progressing. Amongst other things he discussed how the organisation is looking into making all tuition consistent throughout the UK and as such, has made a suite of modules available for members to complete should they wish to better their driving skills. He went onto say that since our inception, we have trained c500,000 individuals in advanced driving and riding techniques of which approximately 250,000 are still 9 on the roads but nevertheless this totals just 0.6% of a total driving population of 39 million. So…..we have a great opportunity to increase our reach to encourage more driver to undertake the advanced course as anecdotally, advanced driver training makes better drivers and riders. Peter also spoke about a plug in Telematics device that monitors incar driving and reports back to a main server where the information is collated and analysed to give an overall result of driving abilities across a broad spectrum. An IAM RoadSmart internal case study (all 7 Area managers) is now complete using a small self-fit On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) plugin device. This reliable device has been used due to it being a simplistic duplicatable method to stream full live telematic data including Driver/Risk scores for full display on the IAM portals. All vehicles from 2001 have an OBD port and even though this device is very small it also comes with a mini extension lead making this a ‘One Fit’ solution for all vehicles.
The next step is to move from a sample of 7 to a bigger sample of 250 National Observers so we measure the ‘best of the best’!
Other initiatives the IAM are currently undertaking includes;
• Young/New Drivers – Graduated Driving Licences plus post-test interventions • Older Drivers – Raise age of licence renewal & allow GPs to prescribe a driving assessment • Driver retesting – Support periodic refresher courses and a continuous personal development approach to enhancing driving and riding skills • Driver Rehabilitation – Send all drivers convicted of drink driving on a course unless they opt out • Driving for work – Get the Health and Safety Executive to enforce good practice such as driver training. No driving for work policy = no contracts! • Driverless cars – Design cars that are safe and don’t overload or distract • Motorcycling – Official support for IAM RoadSmart advanced riding courses, promote ‘BikeSafe’ and allow motorcycles in all bus lanes.
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TO THE FOLLOWING ON PASSING THEIR ADVANCED DRIVING TEST
Charlie Woodley Observer - Ian Greenbeck
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20% Discount on Advanced Driver & Rider courses with: Lincoln IAM, Lincolnshire Advanced Motorcyclists & Scunthorpe & Grimsby Advanced Motorists.
As a current member of any of the above groups, you will receive a 20% discount when you sign up to an Advanced Driver or Rider Course in Lincolnshire.
HOW TO CLAIM
Contact us on the details below, quoting the group name of your choice and we’ll sign you up. A.D. Course with Lincoln IAM Tel:0300 365 0152 or [email protected]
A.R. Course with Lincolnshire Advanced motorcyclists Tel: 01427 616864 or [email protected]
A.D. Course with Scunthorpe & Grimsby Advanced Motorists Tel: 01652 655601 or [email protected]
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by by Photo This
CAUGHT MY EYE……. and a little bit more….. Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943) was a Serbian-American, born in Smiljan, Croatia. His father was a priest and his mother managed their family farm. His brother was killed in a riding accident in 1863 and the shock of this left Tesla with lifelong mental illness. After studying maths and physics and the Technical University of Graz and Philosophy at the University of Prague and whilst out on a walk, the thin faced slight man, made his first sketches in the sand of the path he was walking on, of his idea of a brushless alternating current (AC) motor incorporating rotating electromagnets. In the same year, he moved to Paris in France and landed a job repairing direct current (DC) power plants with the Continental Edison Company. Two years later in 1884, Tasler emigrated to the United States and was hired as an engineer at the Thomas Edison’s Manhattan headquarters, impressing them with his diligence and ingenuity. Unfortunately, he was tricked by Edison into improving the design for his DC dynamos and after financial disputes, Tesla quit soon afterwards. He unsuccessfully attempted to build his own company known as Tesla Electric Light Company but then found financial backing to support his research into alternating current. Spurred on by the inventor George Westinghouse, who obtained licenses for his AC motor and gave him his own laboratory, he invented electric oscillators, meters, improved lights and the high voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil which is still used in radios today. He made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of power, invented the first the AC motor and developed AC generation and transmission technology. In the 1800’s, he worked alongside General Electric to install AC generators at Niagara Falls creating the first modern power station and entire cities eventually ran on AC power. Then, in 1895, Tesla laboratory burned, destroying years’ worth of notes and equipment after which he located to Colorado Springs for two years, only leaving to move to New York in 1900. He spent his last years in the New York hotel known as the Waldorf Astoria working on new inventions even as his energy and mental health failed and finally passed away a poor man, on January 7th 1943. Clearly, being smarter than Edison, didn’t help! In the same year, (1943) the American Supreme Court acknowledged his innovations in radio and the AC system he championed remains the global standard for power transmission today. Interesting?...... read on………..In 1971, Elon Musk was born to Errol and Maye Musk and after attending Queens University: Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he eventually became a Fellow of the Royal Society in London for ‘a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge’ including maths, engineering science and medical science. He subsequently co-founded Zip2, a web software company which was acquired by Campaq for $340 million. Using some of the money, he then founded X.com. It merged with Confinity in 2000 and later that year became PayPal which was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. In 2003, a motor vehicle production company based in Palo Alto, California took the eye of Musk and after using some of the money he made from the sale of PayPal, he invested in it and became the company’s CEO, product architect and the face of Tesla Motors. (written from research by Jan Burditt) ‘Without Tesla’s vision and brilliance, our car wouldn’t be possible’ The AC motor invented by Nikola Tesla, is used in Tesla’s electric cars; Tesla ultimately prevailed and his innovative legacy lives on in Musk’s electric car company
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The future is here and it’s amazing. The Model S is a true game-changer.
Tesla’s first mass-market all-electric car was launched – would you believe – way back in 2012. In EV-years, that’s a very long time ago indeed. Advances in battery technology and the like, mean EVs have come a very long way since then, yet somehow the Model S still does the business. It stills feels fresh – to drive and live with.
This four-door, five-seat saloon is the car that established Elon Musk’s California-based company as a force to be reckoned with, a company whose products deserve to stand alongside the likes of BMW, Mercedes- Benz and Audi.
The Model S might have a fairly conventional silhouette – but what lurks beneath is far from it. Well, it was in 2012. Two electric motors draw power from either a 75 or 100kWh battery pack, driving all four wheels through a single-speed transmission.
The drivetrain lives in a kind of skateboard, with the body bolted on top. This keeps the centre of gravity nice and low (battery packs are heavy old things, and the Model S has a much bigger one than most other mainstream EVs), which aids handling and means there’s loads of storage space in the cabin.
Performance is… ample. A quick YouTube search reveals thousands of videos of these things beating Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens, Porsches and so-on away from the lights. The fastest Model S, the P100D, claims 0-62mph in less than 2.5 seconds, and even the slower, cheaper 75D does the same in 4.2 seconds.
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It’s addictively fast, whatever the spec – and that’s bad news for range, which Tesla puts at 304 miles for the 75D, 393 miles for the 100D and 381 miles for the flagship P100D. But that’s on the old NEDC cycle, and therefore a bit unrealistic.
In reality, the 75D ought to run for over 200 miles on a single charge. And if you do find yourself running low, owning a Tesla gives access to a network of high-speed chargers called ‘Superchargers’ that can top you up in minutes, not hours. There are more than 10,000 stations worldwide.
Prices run from just under £80k for the base 75D, right the way up to £130k for the balls-out P100D. Monthly payments can seem pretty expensive too – just remember you’re not paying for fuel, road tax or congestion charge…
Driving an EV is always a serene experience. The lack of noise from the drivetrain – save for a bit of whine from the e-motors, there’s none at all – amplifies wind and tyre-roar. Thankfully in the Model S these are both pretty well supressed.
The seats are comfortable and supportive, and the ride smooth enough on the standard height-adjustable air suspension, making the Model S good over long distances. It’s good in town too – a bit of practice and you’ll be using the retardation when you lift off the gas (which regenerates energy back to the batteries) for most of your braking. Just watch the size – this is an American car after all, so it feels very wide on narrow city streets.
Country lanes are a bit tight too. But find a wide one and the Model S reveals itself to be a decent steer. Because they’ve kept the weight low it stays pretty flat. There’s no feel to the steering, but it’s accurate and quick enough to make the S feel pretty agile, especially given the size of the thing.
Autopilot is Tesla’s suite of semi-autonomous driving assistance tech. It’s a pricey option, but probably worth having if you spend a lot of your time on motorways. Like systems from Merc, Audi, etc, when activated it handles the braking/accelerating and gives steering assistance. Another YouTube search will show you lots of videos of this being unwisely used…
It’s impossible to talk about the interior of the Tesla without addressing the elephant in the room – that vast, 17-inch portrait touchscreen that dominates the dashboard, and replaces all but a handful of physical buttons.
It handles everything from climate control and audio, via navigation and the hands-free phone, to things like the headlights and sunroof. Happily, despite the size of the screen, the interface/UI is so polished and easy to navigate it’s no more distracting on the move than competitors’ systems. Certain features can also be controlled with buttons on the steering wheel or through voice commands. 14
Tesla’s issues with build quality are well-publicised – but the 75D we tested recently felt solid, closer to the near-£80K car it is than Tesla’s we’ve driven in the past. Supple leather, acceptable plastics, textured wood trim on the dash and an Alcantara headliner – these things aren’t without flaw, but for the most part they feel like premium items nowadays. Just as cars that cost this much money should. That said, the more you spend, the more they struggle. At £130k for the P100D, the Model S feels out of its depth. You can get a new Bentley for that, after all…
The driving position is rather good and the seats themselves comfortable enough. The headrests are of the non-removable variety, so they obscure your view out of the rear-view mirror (which isn’t great to begin with).
Space, though, there’s much of. The boot is big enough that you can spec two, rearward-facing child seats (for £3,800), thus turning the S into a seven-seater, and there’s a useful cubby under the floor for storing the charge leads. The ‘frunk’ (for ‘front trunk’), as Tesla calls it, isn’t massive, but that it’s there at all is a little bonus over petrol- or diesel-powered rivals. There are no door bins, but there’s a little shelf under the touchscreen and a couple of deep bins/cupholders to compensate.
Even 75Ds come well-stocked, so there aren’t many options to choose from. The rearward-facing child seats are quite expensive at £3,800, and really only good for kids. If you need to stick teenagers or even adults back there, or think you might need them quite often, you’ll need to move up to the Model X.
Tesla’s trademark driver assistance tech, dubbed ‘Enhanced Autopilot’, costs £4,800. But because all Model S’s are fitted with the necessary hardware (in the form of many cameras/sensors), if you change your mind you can activate it after you’ve taken delivery. ‘Full Self-Driving’ is another £2,900 – it adds more cameras/sensors ready for when Tesla activates it, presumably via an over-the-air update.
Yep. Instead of having to go to a dealer or service centre to get your car updated, Tesla pushes updates to its cars over the net like it’s a massive, wheeled smartphone. These updates add new features, improve existing ones and fix bugs. Theory is however old your Model S, it will always have all the latest features, provided you’ve let it update (you don’t have to be in or anywhere near the car). This is clever and we like it very much indeed.
Not that Tesla has conventional dealers, mind you. You buy direct from the company, not via a dealer, and the ‘stores’ where you’d do so are usually found in big shopping centres, not extra-urban industrial estates. Or you can buy online, because obviously.
Charging is always an issue with EVs. The Model S can draw about five miles per hour-of-charge from a household three-pin plug. This increases to about 20 miles per hour-of-charge from a 7kW wallbox, which, should you buy an EV, we’d definitely recommend getting fitted to your house. They’re less than £300, after all.
The big draw with Tesla is that you get access to the Supercharger network – they’re fantastically rapid and very convenient, as they’ve been installed at most UK motorway service stations. You can also use their ‘Destination Chargers’ – Tesla-branded chargers at hotels, gyms and so-on.
There’s no denying the Model S is a mightily impressive achievement - and from a company whose only previous credit was a Lotus Elise-based roadster. A usable amount of range, decent handling and plenty of tech-y appeal, the Model S has made the mainstream manufacturers sit up and take notice.
Extract taken from TOP GEAR’S verdict on the Tesla Model S
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Pictures kindly supplied by Terry Heath ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
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999 RESCUE DAY – CROWLE 12th July 2019
We all had a brilliant time at the 999 Rescue Day at Crowle and it was a really good result! Sometimes we don’t get any interest at all at these shows but on the day, 10 people showed a lot of interest in us; in fact, one of them took advantage of our ‘join on the day’ special discount – Fantastic!!
Most of us had a wander around the show at some point to have a quick look around. Humberside Fire and Rescue were there and gave several demonstrations on how they tackle house fires and RTC’s. The many police stalls including cybercrime and lots of emergency vehicles – and as you can imagine it got very noisy at times.
There were many other 999 displays, water rescues, the Red Devils Parachute Display Team fell out of the sky and landed in one of the lakes and there were lots of other very interesting things to see and do.
The new Braking Reaction Tester we had was a big hit with lots of people. Many thanks to Allen Hardman for all his talented, hard work with it.
In this picture, we can see Paul Cassell instructing someone on how to try out their skills with the Braking Reaction Tester – the lowest score we had was 0.28 seconds with the average being 0.35. Well done to that person!!
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My Story……….
Well…………I was approached by one of the officers on the fire station and asked if I had ever been inside a fire engine. I must have led a very shallow life as my answer was no I haven’t. Ok he said, get your coat! I couldn’t believe it –who, me? We went down into the appliance bay and I climbed into the cab thinking that Christmas had come. (It was in fact my birthday and my husband had arranged this without my knowledge ) This was something I had always wanted to do but never before had the chance. I fully expected to stay put whilst the officer explained all the sophisticated equipment in the cab ranging from a telex machine situated smack bang in the middle of the cab which is used to send details of the job the crew are going to whilst they are on route, to the button they press to activate the blue lights. How wrong was I! Belt up he said and as I reached back to get my safety belt, the engine roared into life and off we went, not only just out into the yard but out onto the road where we proceeded toward the A180. I couldn’t believe my luck!! Out on the motorway, I asked lots of questions like how far the emergency services are allowed to go over the speed limit. He explained that it was driver discretion after having taken into account the road conditions, amount of traffic, any hazards around and weather conditions. He went on to say that when approaching traffic lights, it’s important that the driver of the engine slows down and changes the sound of the two tones to alert drivers around of their presence. In return, all drivers in the vicinity (hopefully) acknowledge them by either stopping or waving them on, thus allowing them to proceed with caution until they are passed any hazards after which time they can once more increase their speed to suit the conditions of the road and return the two tones to the normal nee naw we all know and recognise. He added that generally no more than 20 mph above the speed limit on the road they are on is reached. I commented that on occasions, I have had police cars passing me on the motorway so fast that I felt as though I was stood still. My guide explained that these officers are ‘practicing’ their pursuit driving skills. I was amazed – what practicing at that sort of speed? Yes – they are specifically trained at high speed to make sure their reaction times are second to none so in a slower pursuit for example (which is common), they can follow safely without causing much if any, disruption to other road users. By now we had reached the roundabout taking us into Grimsby town centre; we went right round, back onto the A180 and now, I really really really wanted to wave at everyone and say look at me!!!! I was soooo thrilled to have been given this opportunity. We continued down the A180 toward the Immingham turn off and my guide continued to tell me about the equipment inside the cab.
The radio was within easy reach of the driver but also of the person sat in the passenger seat who would be the crew manager. The rest of the crew sit in the back taking instruction from their crew manager and preparing to reach their destination. The water tank underneath a standard engine holds 1,800L of water and carries all the equipment the crew need to help them deal with varying emergencies on a day-to-day basis such as hoses, ground ladders, hand tools, self-contained 18 breathing apparatuses, BLS (basic life support) equipment and first aid kits, all of which I had seen being used by the recruits who were currently on their initial training course. We had now reached the station and backed into the appliance bay. There were several trainee fire fighters around and they all waved, asked if I had enjoyed my trip out and then made sure I returned to the kitchen to assist the chef (my husband) with their evening meal! How dare they – I had just been on my trip of a lifetime and now they wanted me to cook?? I must admit, it took me a few days to come back down to earth and everyone I know must have been fed up with my rabbiting on about how much I had enjoyed my afternoon in a fire engine. Thank you to the officers who enabled me to do this – it is very much appreciated xx
Yes, I did have my old IAM tee shirt on! – not all fire fighters have taken an advanced driving course and so on several occasions I made use of the old tee shirt to promote us and did in fact manage to get several of them very interested in the course. Unfortunately, none of them lived in the Scunthorpe/Grimsby areas so we did not benefit as such. However, I do hope that they all carried through with their promise to contact the group local to them and are by now drivers, who have managed to improve their driving skills and therefore are safer whilst out on the roads.
Permission was sought and granted by the relevant people to put my story into this newsletter
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Don’t forget our next Social Meeting is on the 28th August. We start at 8pm and Safer Roads Humber are our Guest Speakers
www.scunthorpegrimsbyadvancedmotorists.org Facebook: @SGAMG1 Twitter: @ANDGRIMSBY
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