Many thanks for all the helpful replies. I am doing a dummy run for my x-country solo this week and will adjust my flying technique accordingly, one of the main points that i thinks has come out of this is having faith in the planned route, and follow my heading/speed as accurately as possible.
I will update shorty and hopefully it wont be as much of a headache this time!
I dont have access to a flight SIM of any kind, might have a look into this though?
