Hi everyone, I’m back again… ready the fireworks because I passed my C+E on Friday! 
I had a great week training and I felt ready for it, nailed the uncouple/couple and reverse without breaking a sweat. I felt good, just the right level of nervous for an important test… then we got out the gate and I went to pieces. Holy moly, I would have made jelly in a washing machine look like it wasn’t shaking, and not to put too fine a point on it, the driver’s seat in that lorry will forever bear a rather, er, clenched image of my arse 
I got through it, in rush hour, with 8 driver faults (I was aiming for up to 4) but they were scattered across the board so I’m happy that it was more a case of fluffing things than having a specific weakness. One roundabout comes to mind especially where I got the dreaded hesitation - it was a big one, joining sections of dual carriageway and the view wasn’t great as you could only see the junction to the right, and not through/over the centre of the roundabout. I got caught out twice in a row by cars approaching their give way line on the right with their indicator on, then cancelling it just as I made the “go” decision. So I aborted, and they duly turned left anyway. Better the fault for hesitation than the serious for slowing someone down!
Two of them were on obs - I missed a followthrough and I missed a blindspot check. Talking it through with the examiner afterwards, I remembered the lorry I supposedly failed to followthrough, and I know I did my blindspot when pulling away from the side of the road. However, fair enough, I can’t moan because all week we had it drummed into us that checking too subtly for the examiner to notice is just the same as not checking at all under test conditions. So I was pre-warned and just fluffed it.
I don’t remember the others at the moment, as by this point in the debrief I’d got a little misty eyed. 
The training was absolutely spot on all week, enjoyable, hard work, and very thorough. It was definitely a comfort on test day to rock up to the yard, get a brew and have a bit of banter with the other trainees and trainers just as normal, before going out to do the uncouple/couple and reverse in a familiar environment. It was 2-1 training again, same as my Cat C (unsurprising as it was done at the same place!) and again I personally found that really valuable - you learn a lot from the jumpseat when you don’t have to concentrate on driving and learning.
Sadly my fellow trainee ■■■■■■ it on his reverse and that was curtains for him.
He struggled all week to get the hang of the reverse, but dialled it in with a shunt or two the day before test. Nerves must have got the better of him on the day, I suppose.
My biggest reversing-shaped worry before the week began was that because I’ve spent hours and hours playing ETS2 I thought I would have a nightmare trying to do it in reality… actually it was brilliant! I was already used to steering the trailer in the mirrors and not worrying about which-way-is-what in the unit, keeping steering to a minimum until you work out what effect it’s having and then adjusting to make it do what you want… looking through massive real mirrors instead of tiny simulated mirrors was a real help too. The realism of that game is astounding; for the reverse and for normal driving too. My biggest problem (that took three days to fix!) was stalling it on hill starts. We were in a Scania R440 with the 3-pedal Opticruise (I liked that gearbox a lot! Though I only have whatever fully automated awful thing was fitted in the class 2 Merc Axor to compare it to!) I was a bit wary at first of forgetting I would need the clutch when coming to a stop… turns out I was worried unnecessarily. If you rush up to stuff, yeah, it might haunt you a bit, but if you take your time and slow down in good time for whatever you’re dealing with you’ll just naturally use it as you would in your car. I was basically rushing - letting the clutch out too fast - trying to pull away against the trailer brake without enough gas, as if it had already disengaged. Once I got my head around the fact that I can indeed drive a manual, I’ve been doing it for the last 12 or so years, and stopped over-thinking what I was doing - everything ran smoothly. As soon as I over-thought it, I’d lose confidence in my ability and worry/■■■■ off the driver behind!
It’s so much more relaxing (I mean relaxing like making the driving style flowing and smooth is easy - the vehicle encourages it, not like laid back!!!) to drive an artic than anything I’ve driven before. Just chill out, take your time and space as needed.
And I did my Mod 4 non-event in the afternoon after my driving test, passed fine.
