Here’s my experience of C+E training and test…
I was lucky enough to get one of the free courses from Flair, which I am very grateful for - definitely brightened up a pretty crap year when I got the email saying I got it. 
Anyway, I did my training last Saturday, and test was Monday. Drove up to Chelmsford on the Friday, what would have been a straightforward 1 3/4 hour drive ended up taking 3 hours because of traffic round Dartford, also not helped by the fact that I had a slight altercation with the rear end of another car, luckily minimal damage to my car and no damage to hers, so swapped details and carried on to the B&B in Chelmsford.
Saturday morning, I met up with the trainer, another learner and the lorry, did a quick walkround the lorry and went for a drive round, the other learner drove first as he had already done his cat C with Flair so was familiar with the lorry (but not the trailer!). After an hour or two, we headed up to the area used for reversing practise, and I jumped in the driver seat and drove around to get used to the slap over gearbox and trailer. Next was the reversing, after watching the trainer explain it and do it (its pretty straightforward to do) we both tried it many times, mostly successfully, sometimes with a shunt or two, though the few unsuccessful attempts we had we ended up getting tangled up, as we were reverting back to how a rigid truck handles in reverse. But we got there in the end. After that, it was my turn to drive on the road, and seeing as it was near enough lunch time, went to an industrial estate and grabbed a horse burger. Got used to the gearbox pretty easily, and got used to having a trailer (it does cut in a bit, but luckily no curbs were harmed…). Only problems I had were my approach speed at roundabouts which was a bit quick, so just needed to slow it down. Managed to keep most of my other bad habits away too 
. Was a good day, nowhere near as difficult as I had expected which is good. Got back to the b&b, had a takeaway and quite a few beers, and watched a few films before going to bed.
Sunday was a day off, so got up around 9am, had a full english which was proper nice of the b&b owners as they don’t usually do them, and went for a wander round town. Got back in the afternoon, read the Q&A’s that were given to me by the trainer and ordered another takeaway right on time for Top Gear. Got to bed early as Monday was an early start.
Woke up at 6am Monday, today the nerves were properly kicking in. Had a cup of tea and a bit of toast which just about stayed down. MEt the trainer and lorry up the road, and headed off for a brief drive to meet the other learner at the test centre. We swapped so the other learner drove back to the yard so I could get my car and follow back to the test centre, as his test was right after mine and wouldn’t have enough time to get my car after the test.
Test time came around soon enough, so did the usual paperwork bits and jumped in the lorry and got ready for the reverse. Nailed that, right in the box, didn’t touch the barrier and no shunts so was well pleased, as I had struggled on that on my cat C tests. Went out on the road, and at the first roundabout I hadn’t set myself up with enough room on the left so as I went round to the left the trailer rode the curb (the unit didn’t though). Unfortunately the examiner noticed this 
. The rest of the drive went well, only notching up 5 minors, however one of my worst bad habits reared its head and that was approach speed, and I ended up cutting a car up on a roundabout - would have got away with that if I wasn’t towing a trailer! Back at the test centre, I parked up and uncoupled the trailer, and then hitched it back up, without any problems which was good as I wasn’t that confident about it during practise. Aside from the curb and the cut up car it would have been a pass, so I have booked a retest for March. Hope that time I’ll do it.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it, and looking forward to having another crack at it. Thanks Flair for the opportunity, and Manor Guest House for putting up with me, will see you again in a month!
At least I know exactly what, where and how I failed, so as long as I remember those for next time then I shouldn’t have any problems.
