Protective Driving Course Review - Galahad Associates

Protective Driving




I recently attended this three day course with Galahad at their training ground in Bournemouth.

Upon arrival I was treated to a warm welcome by Jamie P, the head of Galahad associates and introduced to the students currently undertaking the full CP course before Jamie took me for a tour of the site in one of the 4x4`s. The site is very large indeed with a good mix of environments including forest, tarmac, sand and shooting areas totalling around 100 acres.

Back to the compound for a brew before sitting in on a CP task briefing and recce reports from the students as part of their CP course. Then it was onto the Protective Driving phase in the classroom with some good videos of ambushes from around the world and an interesting presentation from Jamie, along with a lesson on route planning and map reading. We then moved outside for lessons on vehicle searching and checks
The first practical lessons were then conducted in the tarmac arena with a two car convoy being fired at from a single shooter at the side of the road. We then moved onto single then two car convoy being attacked from the front.
The afternoon was spent learning embuss and debus skills with a principal with a few little surprises thrown in!

Day two and the ambush scenarios stepped up a gear with the introduction of paintball and airsoft weapons for added realism. The students were put through their paces getting attacked through various means and scenarios. These included rolling ambushes, vehicle checkpoints, choke points and ambushes. It was here that we realised how difficult it was to survive a well planned ambush and extract the Principal to safety even when we were allowed to fire back at the attacking force under the cover of smoke. It was here that Jamie`s lovely assistant `H` appeared to take a little too much pleasure in shooting me in the head! Some good lessons learnt in this phase of the course, nothing like a bit of pain to drive a point home!
We also spent some time honing our embuss and debuss skills dealing with passive and hostile crowds and getting the Principal to safety under attack.

Day three encompassed the advanced driving phase of the course with a presentation from Nutty on moving a Principal around in a safe and smooth manner and some of the `do`s` and `don`t`s` of professional driving. It was then out onto the tarmac arena in the VIP vehicles for practising smooth driving followed by blocking techniques in a two car convoy.
The afternoon was spent out on the public roads in convoy putting our route planning and driving techniques into practise.
Back to the training centre early evening for a well deserved brew and farewells as I finished the course with a big grin and certificate.

A fully enjoyable three days was spent with the Galahad team and their students and I came away having learnt a lot about Protective Driving and CP in general, more than I thought I would in three days.

A big thankyou to Jamie for looking after me over the duration of the course.


I would recommend anyone interested in this or other courses on offer at Galahad to get in touch with them.

More in depth details of this driving course can be found on the following link:
http://galahad-associates.com/courses/protective-driving/


Stuart.

Thanks a lot Stuart for your feedback.......
And i'd imagine that galahad keep their guys informed in case of job opportunities..........
There was one advertise on CPWORLD like one month ago i guess.....