On my first solo, I spent five minutes on the ground before the instructor climbed out running all the what-ifs past her. In hindsight I think I was hoping she'd change her mind and not let me go.
We'd spent 30 minutes doing a couple of EFATO's and glide approaches just in case, but I still managed to come up with a huge list of things that could go wrong, including having to divert due to blocked runway, weather, earthquakes etc.
There was nobody else in the circuit and the weather conditions were near perfect. Still, the thing that worried me most was a sudden change of wind direction and therefore runway. Funnily enough the thought that the engine might quit didn't really bother me - if it did I'd just have to deal with it.
The club always arrange for the emergency trucks to be standing by near the runway on a first solo
. This really bothered me. Why was that necessary when I'd just been assured I was up to standard? I'm assured that your first solo landing is one of the best you'll ever do (and it was
).
Would I have coped with an emergency? Probably.
Would I cope a lot better now (38hrs)? Certainley.