I'm forever grateful to my instructor for my first solo(Sleap 1975)We took a while to get to that stage from Manchester International as no student solos were allowed there so EMA.BPL,SLP etc were the favoured places.All of which meant you usually got to about the 12 to 15 hour mark before you did your first solo.All that extra flying was well worth it in my view.
I was impressed by my instructors intuition.He knew,and I knew,that the time was right.It wasn't intuition really I guess.More likely he was a first class instructor who knew his job and his student!
His name was Ron Robinson(A Brazilian amazingly with a name like that)and I believe he went toDan Air eventually.I heard him overflying Stoke in a 146 a few years ago.
A fabulous day in any pilots life but for me the long cross country was the best.