Driving for 100 percent

The faint sound of sirens rising up over Minden-Tahoe Airport is the sound of momentum being brought under control.

More than 100 Douglas County deputies and other law enforcement personnel were recertifying their emergency vehicle driving on an abandoned runway at the airport.

The course allowed deputies to test their abilities and find out what they could do behind the wheel.

"They drive around in a fish bowl all day," Deputy Bret Hicks said of the training on Thursday. "This gives them a chance to let loose and find their 100 percent. All we ask them to do is back it down to 70 percent when they're back out on the road."

Law enforcement officers get a week of training during their Peace Officers Standards Training.

But the four-hour recertification course gives them an opportunity to refresh their skills.

"We teach them to manage the platform by being super smooth," Hicks said. "When they are first in POST we tell them to try and get through the course as quick as they can. They think that means stepping on the gas and jamming the brakes, but it doesn't at all. It's about being smooth in the motions you use to control the vehicle."

Hicks powered a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria through the course, making the curves and then pulling into a stall made of cones and backing to another place.

Deputies used old vehicles that might otherwise be retired to practice their skills.

"We teach them how to get out of a dangerous place in a hurry," he said of the backing exercise, that involves traveling in reverse along a curve and then backing into another stall.

The airport had a lot of rocks and dirt on the pavement, which Hicks said is a good surface to practice on. He said the skills deputies use in driving their vehicles are good in all kinds of weather and road conditions.

"It's the way you drive," he said. "You just slow down depending on the surface. Everything still applies."