Thanks for the replies. I soloed at 9 hours and while I know the statistic can be misleading, I had a meeting with the bank on Friday for a professional study loan to complete my FATPL training. I just wanted a little more weight to add to my RAF Flying Scholarship and High GAPAN score to prove that I shouldn't have many problems on the course.
Once qualified I hope to do some instructing even if only part time as it's something I've always wanted to do, so your views on first solo are appreciated.
Cheers
GF