The day has finally come to start my cat. C license training today. Training actually starts at 12.30 today, and I’m just sat at the computer waiting for the children to get up so I can get them ready for school. I’m wondering what possessed my brain to wake me at 5 this morning and not allow me to go back to sleep, as the usual 7 o’clock would have done just fine; especially after having made it to bed at 1ish this morning after having to put together my new bed first! I’ve been looking forward to starting the training ever since my first assessment drive more than a month ago.
Maybe the assessment drive was a little premature, but it definitely felt worthwhile, as it allayed any fears I had over the differences between lgvs and 3.5t vans, and was a definite confidence boost, allowing me to get straight into the training with a head-start over where I would have been had I not opted to take the assessment. I’m most looking forward to getting back into that semi-familiar volvo i took the assessment drive in, it proved to be more comfortable to be in than any car I’ve ever been in (maybe too comfortable??) I’ll try and keep a reasonable looking blog of the weeks progress, but I’m not very good at recalling things that happened when I’ve been driving, as I tend to concentrate solely on how the vehicle is behaving and learning all it’s foibles…
I believe you are doing 1 to 1 PM training with PDL.
Is your test in the afternoon as well 
Not found any posts about PDL so will be interested on your take on them.
Have FUN 
Good luck - slowly on those roundabouts now…
Good luck EGBGz…
Dont rush it and lots and lots of mirror cheks…worked for me…
PDL in swindon is a “one man and his wife, oh and 2 trucks” outfit. From what I’ve seen/heard, Frank is kept fairly busy, so he must be doing something right… He’s quite calm and relaxed (he has been when I’ve been driving anyway) and I’ve not had many problems driving the Volvo FM7 he uses as his rigid vehicle, and the FM12 he uses for artic is about as identical as you can get, so there shouldn’t be any problems with cab familiarity when I do make the switch to artic training in the foreseeable future.
The course itself is 4 days of 1 to 1 tuition, and my test is booked for friday this week at 2.30pm, which Frank says I shouldn’t have any problems passing, and he was very impressed at my abilities, having only about an hours worth of rigid experience prior to the start of my training. He’s also given me a summary sheet of recommended gear selections for various “road obstacles” and other “challenges”, such as uphill starts and downhill starts, so speed isn’t a problem, and I’m just concentrating on being as relaxed as possible behind the wheel.
Unfortunately for those that like a good read, today was fairly uneventful, except for the inevitable fluff with the gearbox (4 over 4) when I was asked to select 4th whilst in high range, and I forgot to flick the range switch, but i saved it from a stall when I realised what had happened, and quickly selected the low range to put it into 4th, and the only other event was getting the correct road positioning for a difficult junction, where the best plan is to be on the wrong side of the road, placing the vehicle at an appropriate angle to be able to see both directions of traffic. This was on a tight country road, just 300yds away from the swindon lgv test centre… Drivers don’t have it easy here on test!!
Definitely looking forward to tomorrows’ training, hopefully my arm will have recovered a bit from the decidedly “manly” gearchange, and brace myself for taking the vehicle over the legendary magic roundabout for the first time in anything that big. Wish me luck, and wait for the traffic reports on radio 2…
It turns out that the magic roundabout wasn’t all that bad. I just had to remember to take it slowly and assess the situation properly, whilst taking heed of another gem of advice offered by Frank who says “allow 3 cars to be able to block for you if the roundabout isn’t clear”. Other than going over the magic roundabout repeatedly from every direction possible, I was concentrated on town driving and getting the vehicle round all those tight corners and crappy junctions. Good new is that I’ve just about got the dimensions of the vehicle sussed, so I was free from clipping any curbs today. Still having the odd bit of trouble with the range change on the gearbox… trying to pull away in 7th is not the best idea and causes no end of queues behind you. Frank reckoned i was just about ready for the test and said “If there was a test tomorrow morning, you could take it and pass, easily”. Having said that, my confidence levels fluctuated remarkably throughout the day, and I’m still dealing with the feeling of not being quite in control of the vehicle, such is the unweildiness of the beast…
Focussing on the reverse and controlled stops tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. You just can’t beat the feeling of doing a really good reverse and stepping out to admire your work…
Took a look at the course for the reverse maneuver when I started training today, and thought “easy peasy”. As it turned out, I was right; and I’m very proud of it.
Then came the controlled stop… Blimey those brakes can stop that lorry quick… thought I was going to be a bit ill after I did it…
The rest of the day was a little disappointing. I was getting really comfortable with the truck, but I was starting to make silly mistakes all over the place, and then I did a “pulling away in 7th” which invariably leads to a stall. I’m praying that I can pull it together for tomorrow, but there’s so much I’ve had to think about over the last 3 days of training, that my brain has become some kind of paste…
Good luck with it, don’t worry about it all, just drive and it’ll come good for you
Sounds to me like you’ve got it sussed, you’ll be fine.
EBGBz on Tue Mar 24, 2009:
The day has finally come to start my cat. C license training today…
The course itself is 4 days of 1 to 1 tuition, and my test is booked for friday this week at 2.30pm, …
EBGBz:
The rest of the day was a little disappointing. I was getting really comfortable with the truck, but I was starting to make silly mistakes all over the place, and then I did a “pulling away in 7th” which invariably leads to a stall. I’m praying that I can pull it together for tomorrow, but there’s so much I’ve had to think about over the last 3 days of training, that my brain has become some kind of paste…
The above was day 3 of your course.
This is how a 5 day course often works out -
Day 1 - Trepidation and learning under full instruction - goes ok but instructor in control - brain a little fried
Day 2 - Less instruction but now getting to grips with the controls and the DSA procedures are now staring to come in - brain still fried 
Day 3 - Now got to grips with all the controls and DSA procedures but have now FORGOTTEN HOW TO DRIVE 
- try to go to sleep at night wondering if you are ever going to do it…
Day 4 - Remembered how to drive again and combine it with the DSA procedures - phew just in time for test day Hopefully so tired that a good nights sleep will be had in readiness for test day.
Day 5 - Test day - slightly disturbed night sleep as trepidation for test has started to set in. get up too early and have so much coffee that you seem to be permanently going to the loo - Leave nerves at home and go to truck - do test - and hear those lovely words - Congr…
As yours is a 4 day course then it will be interesting to see if you wish that you had taken one more day… well, it’s now about 330pm on your test day so you should be hearing the result about now…
What a day today, up at 6.30am again, not sure why, wasn’t really nervous. I pottered around like normal until about 10.30, when I rang my instructor to make a couple of requests for the day; number one was that the vehicle was cold and untouched from the night before so i could do all the daily walk round checks, and see how long it takes to charge the air tanks etc. The other was to follow a route that I had planned the night before to address a few issues I was having with roundabouts (issues, roundabouts & swindon, not a good combination). His phone went straight to answerphone, so I left a message and continued with my pottering. 20 minutes later, my phone rang and it was Frank’s wife on the phone, saying that he’d collapsed last night, and had been rushed into hospital. She didn’t seem to know all that much about his condition, but he was receiving a disturbingly high level of attention by the medical people in the hospital. She also told me that she’d managed to get a suitable class C driver to sit with me as I drove down to the test centre, and that I was to meet with a trainer from another nearby training school who would go over any last minute issues with me, and drive me back to the yard when I finished. That sure is some dedication to the job to say that her husband was ill!! All of this to avoid having to cancel my test…
I got to the yard and met the driver, nice bloke, really friendly, who helped me with the walk round checks, then I fired up the engine, waited for the air tanks to charge, and off we went. Didn’t have enough time to be able to do the route that I wanted, so I took the most direct route there, and met up with Eric from truck school swindon, who addressed all the little worries I had about the test. Then off we went again, did a little route round the town centre utilising as many roundabouts as I could manage. Then back to the test centre where I met the examiner, and the test began. Reverse was first, got that done easy-peasy, even with the nerves that had built up and caused disco leg. Just the one leg, mind, and it would happen to be the left leg of course…
Then the controlled stop, and it still felt like the truck was going to do a forward roll on me.
Next it was out for a drive round: nothing worrying or memorable about the first part, just into wroughton from chiseldon through all the nasty narrow streets with parked cars all over the place. My head almost came off my neck with the amount of observation I had to do to keep up… Up croft road just into swindon where I had to do an angled hill start, and here’s where I had to think carefully about the gears, only slightly too steep for an effective pull away in 3rd, so 2nd it was, after the engine complained at me… Nearing the end of the test after getting into the one-way system in the middle of town, I almost slipped up with a weight restriction on a junction, where above 7.5T traffic has to turn left (really tight junction, 4th gear job) back through wroughton and into chiseldon, where I got stuck behind a bus dropping school children off, and there wasn’t enough room for me to squeeze through, and I had to wait ages. Then over the roundabout onto draycot road, another one with parked cars everywhere, just returning to my side of the road when I felt a huge bump, and my heart sank. I couldn’t believe I’d been so careless to hit a curb with the nearside front wheel!! I felt utterly gutted that I could slip up so late on in the test, with the centre almost in sight of where I was, I carried on into the test centre, pulled up and switched the engine off. My examiner said “just a minute while I compile the report” and I waited patiently, resting my elbows on the steering wheel in utter despair at my pathetic driving.
“Congratulations, you’ve passed…”
I lifted my head in disbelief, more relieved than I’ve ever felt before, as he went over the minors (9 in total, but it doesn’t matter that much, a pass is a pass).
Eric took me back to the yard, while I made a few phone calls to those beloved. I’d completely forgotten that the instructor has to drive you back to wherever you came from, even though I was in a completely fit state to be driving back…
I’m hoping that Frank gets better, as I want to thank him for a brilliant 3 days, and to take my C+E with him in the near future…
WooHoo!! 
well done to keep your head in such a strange situation, did he say anything about the kerb hit■■?
I reckon that what I thought at the time was a curb, must have been a pothole, that’s the only way I can explain it. Might just sign up to a couple of agencies to get an extra day a week or something to get a bit of experience in a few days.
Thanks for the congrats, it’s the best feeling in the world, isn’t it?
did he know the situ with your instructor i take it??
Yes mate best feeling in the world, until you get the the brickwall regarding jobs
Yeah, the training community round swindon is close knit, so all the trainers in the area know everything about each other, just about…
Ain’t too worried about the jobs situation right now, I’ve got a stable full-time job for now anyway, so I’m quite happy to play the waiting game, or try and get some strings pulled at work, so I can get into the emerald park RDC driving their class 2s
Well done that man
Well done, all the best for the future!
Stu
Congratulations mate!!
Well done…Great feelin’ ain’t it?
Congratulations on your pass, EBGBz
I hope Frank from PDL is on the mend.
What a star for him and his wife to worry about you and sort you out when he’d been rushed to hospital - that’s proper customer care for you! Best wishes to them too ■■■