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Old 03-27-2017, 06:23 AM   #6
Need_for_speed
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: New England
Posts: 296
Very interesting discussion, and I can relate from the standpoint of having been a flight instructor. It may not apply here, but when you're teaching a newbie to fly, you begin in a very basic machine with no special aids or electronic assistants. Once the student shows proficiency, then you move up to the next level of complexity. It's a process that has worked for me in both military and civilian aviation. We justified this learning strategy by reminding students that systems, especially complex electronic ones, can and do fail. When everything is working as it should, a chimpanzee could fly the airplane. I used to tell students they don't get the paycheck for flying a perfect jet -- it's when stuff starts breaking down that you earn your money.

Skip Barber takes the same approach, and that's why I keep returning to them when I want driving instruction. You begin with a bare-bones Miata on the skidpad, then autocross, and then finally, the racetrack. Even then, I can tell you that the first time your ABS fails in an MX-5, it's a real eye-opener, especially at the end of a long straight leading to a hairpin.

This is what concerns me about all of these electronic nannies. My granddaughter could probably get a GT4 around the track quite competently when everything is working. But when PSM fails...?
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