correct ground movement hand signals

[rob love]

Some basic and common sense rules on ground guiding:

1: The guide does not walk backwards while bringing a vehicle towards him. He walks back 20 feet or whatever is appropriate and then guides the vehicle towards him.

2: The guide never stands between the vehicle being guided and an immovable object like a wall or another vehicle.

3: If the operator loses sight of the guide, the operator stops until he can see the guide.

4: guide in the front and if backing up you have a second guide at the rear. Again, not standing right behind the vehicle, but to the side where the front guide can see him and relay the signals.

5: When the arm is outstretched for left or right turn, the operator continues to turn his wheel/tiller bars in that direction until the arm goes down. The wheel (or in the case of the tiller bars, the vehicles orientation) then stays in that position until the guide signals to adjust the wheels or direction. Two hands held up facing each other is an indication to bring the wheels back to straight ahead position. This is said in Colin's fifth photo from the manual, but I wanted to stress it. Some drivers turn hard over as soon as the guide signals a turn, then all the way back as soon as the arm drops. It is very frustrating as a guide.

[Lauren Child]

There are different versions in use internationally, and as Adrian says, some drivers dont take instruction well (whether by lack of training or force of will). Either way it's only good if the other person understands and knows what to do.

Remember we're all human and we all make mistakes.

[Lauren Child]

For a flashback to the past, here are the instructions from Tank Training Volume 1 1930, amendment 1 of 1933

Presumably this is when they were defined, as the unamended manual shows police officers giving normal traffic directions.

[Lauren Child]

This one is clearer, from "Manual of Recovery (c) Recovery Technique Part 2; Practical and Technical Considerations" 7th August 1945.

The only thing I'd add is that :
a) many people use both arms for Advance
b) note the main difference for Halt is the elbows out and hands above eye hieght, while Advance/Reverse are elbows close to the body with hands at or below eye hieght.
c) to indicate a neutral turn bump your fists together twice with elbows out, before indicating direction normally, but remember not all vehicles can neutral steer/pivot steer.
d) some folks use a bent arm and fist (a bit like half of a halt signal) to indicate a change in direction - some would say it's safer as there's less chance of your hand going into something, and you can be more expressive with the fist for a tighter turn. That's probably why most folks use two arms for the Advance signal, so it's not confused.

Hope that helps.

[Jim Burrill]

For dusk/night movements, I have three of these Aircraft mashaling wands in the Humber stowage. Also whistles.

The guy in eye contact with the driver has two wands and uses them as expected to show hand directions. The rear guide uses his as so: a steady pointed up is "whatever you have him doing is fine , not about to crunch anything. A down is a "thumbs down" or stop. ALong with a whistle. (even if the driver can't hear it, the director can.) And then pointing sideways indicates which way the back end needs to go.

[Jim Burrill]

Here is where I got them.

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[kosbie]

This British Army AFV safety video might be useful? Lame presentation and a lot of it is pretty obvious but so are most accidents in my experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlnveNUd7KY

Rick

[Lauren Child]

Originally Posted by Jim Burrill

For dusk/night movements, I have three of these Aircraft mashaling wands in the Humber stowage. Also whistles.

The guy in eye contact with the driver has two wands and uses them as expected to show hand directions. The rear guide uses his as so: a steady pointed up is "whatever you have him doing is fine , not about to crunch anything. A down is a "thumbs down" or stop. ALong with a whistle. (even if the driver can't hear it, the director can.) And then pointing sideways indicates which way the back end needs to go.

It's a good idea, although there's actually a different set of signals for night use that use a normal torch. I can't say I'd want to try them out though, as I'd rather have sufficient light that we can all see what's going on.

[Robin Craig]

There are many very talented and experienced people on this forum, some of whom I have met and many I respect deeply (but don't tell them).

Ground guiding is about communicating, this is a practised art form based around agreed signals.

I am involved with a vehicle collection at work and in my pleasure time other vehicle groups.

The merits of the various signals can be discussed 14 ways to Sunday. My favourite set of signals is becoming what ENFORM uses out west and is detailed here:- http://www.pistonwell.com/irp/irp12_...g_vehicles.pdf

I am responsible in the workplace as a supervisor and as a team member with the hobby.

I agree with others who state that they observe the most danger when owners who operate vehicles do not follow instructions, that hits close to home for me very deeply, I have lived that dream too often.

With the Cold War Collection, that I volunteer with, we hold training weekends and part of that time includes practices on ground guiding with each other to a standard and build the trust and skills needed as part of being a group. We use wheeled and tracked armour and softskins large and small.

Knowing how vehicles handle and what they can do is part of the exercise.

Anyone seen an M113 or an FV432 do a neutral turn?

Ever seen a CVR(T) take a corner in too high a gear and go wide and understand what happened?

Discussion on safety is always good and does the hobby good.

I have as a ground guide watched several people come close to being killed on a number of occasions, it is always distressing and avoidable.

Have a safe weekend