Driving blindfolded

Probably the passenger should scream less loudly, the closer the driver is to teh desired 'flight path...'

Jim

Fear factor is a waste. Half of the things they do are either part of a normal days work for many people or native cuisine somewhere. Grab a few submarine helmsmen if you wanna drive blindfolded, if you spill your beer, you lose!

The BBC2 TopGear TV programme recently had a blind driver driving round their test track with instructions from one of the presenters. He actually got round faster than a couple of sighted celebrity drivers.

Someone I used to know (now deceased) holds the world speed record for a motorcycle driven by a blind person.

Leon

Might just be bandwidth. Words take too much time. Imagine something that would emit one tone if you were off to the left, a different tone if you were off to the right, with volume or warble rate proportional to error magnitude.

If it were female, it would screech if you're following too close....

You are describing, almost exactly, an early instrument flying technique. Flying down the center of the beam, the pilot hears a steady tone. Drift right or left and he hears a Morse "r" or "a" character in the headset.

I flew left seat in a helicopter once and gave the pilot verbal directions to get to a destination. "right 15 degrees", "left 10 degrees", got there with very little deviation.

I would think the directions should give you what your eyes would have. Don't tell the driver what to do, tell hin where he is. Bearing and range to the target, as "11 O'clock at 100 feet".

Thats "a" or "n" --- not "r"

Jim

Jim Stewart wrote:

Once upon a time the old timer across the road from us used to drive down to the local gin mill for a nip or two.

His scruffy little dog would lean out the passenger side window and as he drove by you could hear Shorty barking out commands. A little left Jim. OK hold it there, now a touch right. And so on. Both Jim and Shorty have gone to that big tavern in the sky but we still chuckle about the memory

Errol Groff

Not quite. a = dot dash the opposite side was n n = dash dot r = dot dash dot

...lew... ( former W3SLX )

Hell, in the 70's a buddy and I used to do something similar. Whoever was driving would recline the seat all the way back, the other would give directions. Funny as hell to see the reactions of other drivers when they realized the passenger had no hands on the wheel. We mostly cruised mall parking lots and low traffic side streets at night. Sure helps a lot if you really trust the other person! We used to do lots of stupid stunts like this, and we're both still around to laugh about it.

Jon

They do something similar with blind skiers and blind golfers.

Gunner

"Gunner, you are the same ridiculous liberal f--k you ever where." Scipio

Blind golfers ?

Hmmm, does that mean that Gerald Ford was blind ?

LOL... could be...

Gunner

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke