dar1976:
I’m intrigued about the trainer intervention at coupling / uncoupling exercise. I thought they were not allowed to intervene
Peter Smythe:
As a rule, that’s correct. But, if the situation is very simple and if the trainer has a good relationship with the examiner, then it has been known for this sort of thing to happen.
What happened is that Animal is a fairly small lady and did struggle a bit to refit the emergency airline due to the air pressure. To overcome this we had her drain all the truck & trailer airtanks once the tractor was recoupled correctly but before fitting the lines. Despite this she still found it difficult during test conditions. After a minute or 2 of trying the examiner looked over at me and asked if there was a mechanical problem. I asked if I could try and it went on so I gave it a quick squirt with WD40 as if to say that’s it fixed !
At that point the examiner informed me that if she can get the airline on she has passed. One more big effort and bingo! Animal had her Class 1.
Its true what Peter says about having a good relationship with the examiners. Things become a lot more flexible at certain moments during the test process.