My first solo came as a suprise, but not an unwelcome one. I had known I was almost there for a few weeks but had been struggling to prove I was spot on. Amazingly, it was the desire to go solo which finally taught me attitude flying, which had been my achilies heel until then.
Then, one day it just clicked, and as we rolled, my instructor chopped the throttle and called to stay on. This puzzled me greatly, as did his comment on the way back - "You've done enough shoddy circuits with my callsign. Go and dirty your own."
So I did. Yes, it was exciting, yes, I was nervous, and yes, I did forget to put my landing light on. However, the feeling of lining up and that split second of commitment required in deciding to push the throttle forward was the defining moment of my life.
T