"Michael" wrote in message
...

Obviously, the Examiner isn't going to do anything dangerous, but what
sorts of distractions have people encountered? It is obvious when the
distraction occurs....or is it something subtle?

The most common "subtle" distraction is to ask you questions that have
noting to do with what is happening in the glider at that moment. Do the
best you can, but at some point it is perfectly OK to ask the examiner to
hold such questions until you get on the ground. One technique that I used
in my checkrides is to talk! Take a bit of control of the situation (you
are, after all, the PIC) by explaining to your "passenger" what you are
doing any why.

When you start to get low, don't wait for the examiner to suggest that
you land. You are the PIC. Just do it.

On my Commercial checkride, the examiner suddenly directed me to the
pattern just at the moment when the runway was jammed. I guess he wanted to
see how I handled the situation. We were alone in the pattern so I dumped
the spoilers and circled a couple of times on the downwind leg while I
pointed out alternate landing areas to him. By that time, the runway was
cleared for us so we landed normally. No big deal.

Another time he suggested that we land right in front of the glider
parking area to save us the push from the runway. I declined, and used the
runway. Again, no big deal.

Vaughn