Aussie A.- it's not Man or LPL, but further north (one tower is a damn big one to the north west of the field!).
I know that, by the book, I should have retuned back to 'Approach', but I was too busy 'aviating' and 'navigating' to take my eyes away from the outside situation and vital instruments, to fiddle with the radio and 'communicate' and by the time I was in a position to give attention to anything other than staying in the air and not bumping into anything, I had established contact with TWR.
To give them their due, ATC was so busy that when it was time for me to go, it took 23 minutes from start up to managing to get a word in edgways to ask for taxi. The shame about the whole episode was that it took the pleasure out of completing my cross country successfully.
Once I was told to line up I found I had to ask for another runway as I was totally blinded by the low sun and by the time I returned to LPL the sun was actually setting and unfortunately I had to land straight into it on 27. Thankfully, I know LPL well and ATC helped with directions. I was saved from having to orbit until the sun had actually gone down, by making my turn onto finals past the centreline, based on ground features only, and luckily this angled aproach gave me visibility of the runway. It was no problem on the flare as the sun was now below the hump in the runway. I'd find this stressful now, but it was not an experience for a learner!