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What is Pilotage and its importance in Offroad, how is it developed?

Our topic today is “Offroad Piloting” :

You pass, good piloting, you stay bad pilot. So what is this pilotage beyond being a label?

If we are to answer this question with the dictionary meaning; We could answer it as “the job of managing an aircraft”.

As you can see, it wasn’t really about us. However, we will not be confined to the dictionary meaning, but will examine its meaning in our own lives.

Offroad piloting; It is used in the sense of “managing and managing an off-road vehicle”.

Essentially, the conditions for successful driving in offroad are clear. If the tires can provide traction, you can walk, if not, you can’t. So is everything so simple and monotonous?

Of course, it is not so monotonous and simple.

Physical characteristics of the vehicle (ground clearance, tire size pattern width/narrowness, wheelbase, track width, articulation ability), mechanical characteristics of the vehicle (traction system, presence of middle lock, presence of differential locks, engine power, strength of parts in the power flow line) are major factors of successful driving.

Off-road Basic Technical Information

Dear off-road and nature enthusiast friends, we are together with another sharing of our Off-road Basic Technical Information article series. The information I will provide; These are concentrated, technical-based, lived experiences, and some of the details that will find a name in the off-road literature for the first time. With the hope that it will benefit the readers.

Successful piloting; It is the ability to make the right decision without causing any mechanical damage to the vehicle, without weakening the driving safety, which mechanical possibilities of the vehicle should be driven, which track the tires will pass and at what speed the transition will be.

Sometimes you step on the gas and you pass, sometimes taking your foot off the gas allows you to pass. Sometimes you press the tire on such a track that you go on a straight road without feeling anything in the car cabin, sometimes you think you’re going to do a somersault.

pilotage ; It can exist as a skill in humans, but it is also a skill that can be developed by learning and training.

If we explain the situation with concrete examples; imagine a track, a little long. Let’s assume that vehicle handling is not possible in a certain part of the track. If the vehicle does not hold the road, when entering that area, if it is not downhill, that is, if the gravity is not on our side, the vehicle will start to lose speed and will be stuck somewhere. If we give a numerical example; On the track I entered at 10 km/h, in a part of the track where it is difficult to pass, my tires have lost their grip and if my speed drops to 0 km/h before I can pass that area, I will be stuck on the track. Now, on the same track, if I enter the part of the track that does not allow passage at 20 km/h instead of 10 km/h without jeopardizing my driving safety, I can walk normally even if I lose some speed.

Here is successful piloting; It is the ability to decide what my speed should be, taking into account the driving safety in this part of the track.

You can watch an example of this situation in the link .

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I have been doing track training for years, I pass the same tracks over and over with different driving parameters, I observe what happens or does not happen when I try.

I would like to tell a parkour moment. A combination of a deep slit and a steep descent, a descent and ascent where it is crucial to keep the tire on the correct track. While on the descent you only pay attention to where to put the tire on, the situation is more complicated when ascending. At first, I made my exits by engaging all the mechanical possibilities of the vehicle in order not to take risks. Then I tried disabling the front lock first, then I tried disabling the rear lock as well. Then I had stop and go attempts in the middle of the ramp with the 4H middle locked and I was able to get out without any problems. One day, without realizing it, I took a quick walk in 2H, thinking I was in 4H. Then I had unsuccessful attempts at slower speeds in 2H.

You can see this track in the link .

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The result of these trials was as follows; If you enter the track with the momentum needed at the difficult points of many tracks, it is possible to continue your ride successfully. If we consider that we are interpreting the momentum for the same vehicle in the equation P=MxV (mass *velocity), since the mass will be constant, momentum will be the linear parameter of the velocity. So it will change one-to-one with speed.

The faster you enter the difficult points, the easier and more possible it will be to pass there without getting stuck. However, other points to consider here are; must be able to stay within the safety and breaking limits. It should not be accelerated at speeds that would cause the vehicle to topple over or suffer a mechanical breakdown.

In the video given in the link, a crossing from a track entered with the wrong momentum and the correct momentum is seen.

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The transition made after maturing on the same track can be watched from the link below.

These videos are also an explanation of the necessity of training in offroad.

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Being able to evaluate and apply all these parameters correctly can be called good piloting, and on the contrary, bad piloting. Neither good piloting nor bad piloting are concepts that have continuity. In other words, just because you perform well on a track does not mean that you will perform well on every track, even on the same track. The same is true for poor performance.

Conclusion and Suggestions:

– Except for exceptional cases, when we compare two light and heavy vehicles whose values of “(Weight) / (tire floor area)” are close to each other in general, the vehicle with more weight in terms of momentum, that is, with a higher mass, has a higher momentum at the same speed. Since it is high, it can be expected to drive more successfully with more accurate piloting. In other words, you can be expected to drive more successfully with a more understandable language, heavy vehicle and good piloting.

– The different mechanical properties of the vehicles sometimes provide ease of driving, and sometimes they can be a problem for us. In some vehicles, when the front lock is activated, if you turn the steering wheel a little and press the gas, the axle may cut. Or if the axle is strengthened, this time there may be a problem inside the differential. This flow of problems can go in the opposite direction of the engine power flow, to the axle-differential-shaft-terrain transmission-transmission-engine moving parts. These problems can be experienced even in vehicles that are known as international off-road vehicles and are widely used. If we press the gas more than necessary to maintain momentum while using our vehicle, we may break our vehicle. Knowing the mechanical endurance limits of our vehicle is extremely important for both our safety, our pocket and our enjoyment of the work we do.

Let’s not forget that good piloting is first of all not to break your vehicle.

– Although the engine power is a parameter that concerns the final speed of the vehicle, the torque increasing in parallel with the power is our basic need in the field. When a transition is near to occur, the engine can jam even though the vehicle is at low. In this case, piloting or something would be garbage. On the other hand, any vehicle that is considered to have land sufficiency should not have a problem such as gas-eating and piling up, especially when it is under low speed. The conclusion drawn from this is that some vehicles that are considered to be land adequacy are actually not. When choosing our off-road vehicle, let’s be careful about engine power adequacy, stay away from poorly maintained vehicles that will put us in a difficult situation, and take good care of the vehicles we own.

– Every sport requires training, let’s apply this as an unchangeable basic rule for offroad, and try to do training rides whenever possible, even on the same tracks.

Best Regards,

13/05/2020

Süleyman ATILGAN

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You can view other articles professionally prepared by Süleyman Atılgan, which include off-road basic techniques and off-road driving advice, below.