Thanks all, interesting mix of views.
I certainly make no claim to be the perfect pilot. I am a very low hours PPL aware of my limitations, trying to build experience and eager to learn at any opportunity. Of course you only have my point of view here, but I do have the reference of instructors who taught me from day 1, and non of them fiddled and 'co-flew' in such a vague and difficult way.
To respond to a few specifics, my hand was always on the throttle, when he interfered he put his hand, unannounced, on mine and we briefly fought for control! That has never happened to me before, even as a total novice a suggestion to add/remove a bit of power was sufficient. On the transponder - I was always taught to set alt after power checks, as part of pre-takeoff checks - for good reasons. I had checked it was on stby before taxiing out, so I was surprised to see it on alt as I prepared for power checks, I asked if he had set it, he said yes. I said nothing and left it on alt. When I stopped clear of the rwy for after landing checks, I know I was well clear of any other possible traffic - I learned in a very busy airport , much busier and more complex than the airfield we were using for the check-out, so I am very aware of not interfering with others. He was just rushing me by asking me to go straight to apron and shut down. I am sure my mistake here was to not tell him to **** off and let me do my checks. In fact, when I first got to a/c I had found the trim set very nose up, so he had not done a proper after landing check when he arrived.
I am not trying to be defensive and I appreciate the different points of view here. And this was the only check ride I have done since my GFT, so I was not sure what to expect. But regardless of whether I was flying adequately or like a dangerous muppet, I found silent fiddling and unannounced 'co-flying' very difficult. I actually got the impression he was trying to be helpful.
Last edited by double_barrel; 22nd September 2020 at 10:08.