Sep 66 - in sole charge of C172 G-ARLU, pride of the Royal Artillery, landing at Lympne prior to crossing the Channel on route to Grimbergen. Instructed to use the tarmac runway which had a stonking x-wind, instead of the grass runway with the wind more or less straight down it, and decided not to argue; after all, with nearly 100 hours I could do anything.
Result, a very bent nosewheel and severe embarassment, to say nothing of the cost of paying someone to come from Redhill (I thinik it was) to fix it.