DAY FOUR & FIVE INCLUDING TEST
As promised here is the remainder of my training diary.
Day Four
Today I was doubled up for a whole days training with Mark who had been doing his training in the afternoon.
It had been decided to double up for a whole day as neither of us had perfected the reversing and needed that bit of extra training.
The first hour and half was spent in the yard doing the reversing exercise and would you believe it, I slotted the first four straight into the garage 
At this point I couldn’t understand what all the worry had been about.
Mark was still struggling, he just couldn’t get to grips with the middle bit, he would come across at a perfect 45 degree angle but would then put on too much lock when turning it into the garage and would either end up clipping a cone or taking too many shunts.
Anyway time to hit the road, instructor tells me to take first ride and off we set. We had only travelled about 15 minutes down the road when there was an almighty clanging noise. I stopped the vehicle and we got out to look, about 200 metres up the road was a long piece of metal in the middle of the road. We went up to investigate as I knew it wasn’t there as I travelled down the road and it turned out to be a piece of the exhaust that had fallen off.
So back to the yard for a new one to be fitted. Got back to the yard and the fitter examined the damage. The middle piece of the pipe had fell off and unfortunately they didn’t have one in stock. It looked as though the days training was going to be cancelled 
Anyway after discussion with the fitter, the instructor decided that we could go back out on the road as the increased noise level was not noticeable and that the vehicle would be repaired overnight ready for the next days test.
So off we went again with Mark driving this time. The rest of the day was spent taking it in turns driving around Birmingham getting used to the test routes and known tight corners and roundabouts.
Few silly mistakes but nothing major although Marks confidence was shatter by some Sausage who decided to indicate to pull off the round about and as Mark pulled out changed it’s mind and nearly ran into the truck. After this he was hitting kerbs left right and centre.
Got back to the yard and did a trailer drop and with half an hour left the instructor asked if we wanted to do a few more reverses. Mark said no ■■? but I thought what the heck and slotted two more in first time. Now I am not worried at all about this part of the test at all.
DAY FIVE
Early start this morning (0700) as Mark’s test it at 0945 hrs. Mine wasn’t until 1430hrs
Sat in the spare seat while Mark drove to the test centre. I didn’t have to come in this early but I thought at least I get to see the Pad for reversing and the emergency brake area before it was my turn.
We get to the test centre and Mark goes out for his test, I wandered around to watch his reversing and he start off as normal right on target coming over at the right angle, then he starts to turn it into the garage and at one point he looked like he was going to parallel park it. He then realised that he was too far over and put the opposite lock on ended up with the right marker post dead centre with the rear of the trailer. As he came back I’m standing there thinking Shunt it but too late he hit the bollard. He then shunted it and reversed in but was taking to long so the examiner stopped the exercise before he got anywhere near the barrier.
Having done the braking exercise he then disappeared of on route and all I had to do was read my book and go through everything in my head.
Just short of an hour later Mark returned and they just pulled straight into the waiting bay with no trailer drop. No Surprise that he failed.
My Instructor then turns up in his car to swap over and we head out for a drive around more test routes and tight corners which was a good job as some of these ended up on my test and I had not done them the previous day.
A few hours later having re-fuelled in a very tight filling station 
we return to the test centre.
End up getting the same examiner that Mark had in the morning, so a bit concerned as Mark had said he never spoke all the way around other than to give directions. (I prefer a chatty examiner as it help to make the time go faster), any way I do the reversing exercise and pop it in first time although I did have to get out and check because the reflector that I had been using all week to signify I was in the box, suddenly became invisible because I had the sun on my back as I reversed in so it did not show up. Got out and I was about 2 feet short so I used the markers on the floor to go back the right distance.
Then came the braking exercise where I nearly put the examiner through the window so I was confident that I passed that as well. Then we head out of on the road. Now for anyone who doesn’t know Garretts Green Test Centre, it’s on an industrial estate, so you basically turn right out of the test centre and then immediately left onto the main drag of the industrial estate. As I turned right I came to a stand still at the T-junction checked that nothing was coming and started to pull left. Almost instantly I noticed a vehicle heading towards my left so I stopped the vehicle to allow it through. The other vehicle slowed down and flashed me through so I carried on, not a good start I thought but he never went for his pad and he waved at the other vehicles as I drove passed.
Off we went and to be honest the rest then became a blur with left after right and so on. I never hit a kerb once although I did get a couple of minors for the turns so I assume I took them too wide. I got stuck at a round about for what seemed like ages as car after car came out from the right and at the end I had also received a couple of Minors for hesitation. He also took me from junction 4 to 5 on the M6 which wasted a considerable amount of time because as soon as we got passed junction 4a the motorway came to a stand still and we crawled up to junction 5. Anyway off at this junction meant an extremely tight right turn, a very narrow bridge where you had to swing the unit over the other side of the road to get around and another tight left off a 2 round abouts before back into the test centre, where I was told to take the vehicle back round to the reversing pad for the trailer drop. “Looking good” I thought. Did the trailer drop and both of us got back into the vehicle where by now I’m feeling really confident.
Then I get the
“I’m Sorry to tell you that you have failed”[/size]
7 minors and 1 Serious.
The serious being the other vehicle as I had pulled out of the test centre, which he judged that I had forced to slow down.
I now have to decide whether to go for it again (Another £230 re-test fee) or stick to class C.
Ian
).
