First solo's can also be very exciting!!. Winch failure at 300. Dumped cable [possibly a bit under tension] 'S' turned as per book, landed safely. I was amazed I kept so cool about it whilst it was happening, as I always considered myself not particularly capable of being 'cool' under pressure. Only problem was, that later, as a Staff Cadet, [fortunately dual] I lost control on the winch,'!!' got into an overbank situation which was heading rapidly for disaster until my guardian angel in the back dumped the cable and recovered it for me. To this day, I have no idea why I didn't do it myself, I guess I just stuck with it too long. Later, as a PPL, I never failed to overshoot an approach I was unhappy with, so I must have learnt something from it!!! [613Halton]