So, first day.
Not a bad day all around, I’m just sitting here trying to remember most of it through the haze of sweating, rusty driving skills, caffeine withdrawal and sweating.
Met my instructor at the center this morning, along with the guy I’m going to be training with. I’d thought that since my training was starting in the middle of the week I might have an awkward few days driving at day 1 level while the other fella is on day 3 and 4, but the training company put us both on the same start and end dates so we’ll be learning together at the same time, only difference is that this lad passed his class 2 a few weeks back instead of 7 months ago.
The unit itself was a mercedes axor with a tri-axle trailer, definitely kept in good condition, the lack of scuffs and scrapes on the outside probably an indication of either their quality of training or some real OCD workshop boys. 
Went to an empty patch of tarmac first thing, our instructor telling us about various functions and then demonstrating them as he went around to park up, including a few tips on the best way to position your seat so your legs don’t fall asleep after three hours. (another of those little things I didn’t know beforehand.) So once he was done with that the other lad had a go around the tarmac first to get a feel for the gears, it’s actually a little simpler than it was for the rigid as the unit has a 4-4 gearbox and only eight full gears, not six gears and a hi/low split to mess about with. When it was my turn I almost stalled on the first move off, forgetting that the trailer brakes take that extra second or so to fully come off I lifted my foot from the clutch and did a bit of a kangaroo start. 
The pacing of the gear changes is definitely taking a lot of getting used to, planning ahead and trying to figure when I’ll need each one is something that’s taking a lot of concentration and as such when I’m trying to make a turn or a roundabout or a meeting situation I end up diverting too much attention to struggling with the gears because I don’t yet have a feel for where on the speed/rev counter I’ll need them. It doesn’t help that my car driving habits come into it and instead of just slowing and changing gears I end up booting the brakes every time I change, trying to avoid engine braking that most times I’m already going slowly enough to avoid!
Once we were out on the road for a few hours I felt that I’d a better handle on things, and a lot of the road sense I’d picked up last time came back, it’s just taking a while to work that out in a new vehicle that’s twice as long and half again as heavy. There was exhaustive practice at a loop made of a straight road and two tiny roundabouts that really helped me to judge the size of the vehicle and the turning point, though I did forget about it at one point later in the day and scuffed the edge of a much larger roundabout, somehow.
A few of the things the instructor picked up on is that I’m spending too much time in my mirrors and not enough on the road ahead of and around me, paying too much attention to the traffic behind instead of the situation I’m encountering and hesitating because of it. I didn’t know this was even possible with how much mirrors is hammered into you, but apparently I’m doing it! 
Other things that he noted were that my approach speed needs work, but with proper use of the gears I was getting that down and it was better near the end of the day, and that I need to make sure I follow the lines on/of the road when approaching junctions and roundabouts so to avoid chancers on bikes on one side or taking up more space than I need on the other. The biggest potential fail he’s found there is that out of habit if I’m turning right on the roundabout and approaching my exit I will check the mirror, and then while signalling start to move into the left lane, instead of mirror, signal, mirror, move, something I actually found pretty hard to force myself out of, but I understand why it’s a problem and I’ll work on it!
All in all I’m told that today was a good day by first-day standards. I needed a lot of prompting at first, but less as time went on and hopefully by the end of tomorrow or Friday I’ll have the worst of it nailed down to the floor. There was at least never a situation where he felt the need to give forceful instructions along the lines of ‘STOOOOOOOOOOP’ or ‘SLOW. DOWN. SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW.’ xD
Of course tomorrow we’re starting on all the things that involve going in the other direction. Reversing and drop and catch, that’s going to be an interesting challenge alright!
Also, just as a moment of WTF from my day. Many of us think cyclists lack sense at times, but today for the first time I saw a runner, running up the oncoming lane of an unrestricted section of an A-road, no doubt having crossed several busy roundabouts on his journey… when there was a perfectly serviceable cycle path on the other side of the road that ran the exact same path. Do some people just want to end up a red stain on your front grille?
