I think my biggest screwup to date was my first solo land-away at Southend.
I'd not done a straight in approach before, and had I done a circuit before I would have saved myself embarrassment.
I had something of a blind spot when it came to spotting airfields. In some cases I'd practically be on top of them before I noticed them!
I was flying along when I suddenly found the airport was a lot closer and to the left than I'd been expecting. So I pulled on the carb heat (that carb heat/mixture mistake is one I've not made (yet)) and went into a glide descent doing an S curve to get on track for the runway.
I'd lost height, but I had too much speed, I did a bit of a sideslip to try and slow down, and once I got the airspeed needle back in the white arc, I put on full flap to try and slow myself down, but when I got to the runway I was still a good five knots too fast.
I realise now I SHOULD have gone around. Instead, I bounced it. Bounced it again. I was putting on the power by now, but didn't stop the wheels touching down again. This time however the extra power had slowed the descent so I didn't bounce. So I decided to stay down....
I was a bit shaken, and shameful.
I should have gone around once I realised i was going too fast.
I could have said I was unfamiliar with a straight in approach and could I do a circuit instead?
But at least I was able to identify what I'd done wrong, and had a chat with my instructor about it when I got back to base.
Another scary thing was on my last solo (building up my solo hours) when after a solo nav. down to Beachy Head I was coming back to Biggin when the cloudbase started getting lower and I had to keep ducking under it.
I was really contemplating having to turn around and head for Shoreham - but how would I have known when to?