Its a good point about mates.
When I undertook my IR check flight the instructor kept interjecting the exam with rambling conversation, especially at the holds points when I had to ask him to hang on a mo whilst I spoke to the tower.
When I mentioned it on my return to the instructor his reply was "oh yeah..forgot to warn you about that...he does it on purpose to see how you would cope when you have a high workload and one of your mates you have taken up wants to chat to you". Apparently one of the things he looks for is that you tell him to 'shut up'
Anyway, got my IR
Julian.