My first solo was a real challenge in many ways.
I had a small incident before, with a too high flare, damaging the main gear.
So I was reluctant to go for the solo and happily kept carrying my instructor with me. He was getting upset with me, he wanted to be down in the clubhouse sipping his tea, or out on some interesting cross-country trip, instead of the boring pattern work. I promised him I would take the pre-solo checkride a few days later. However as we landed after that day's practice in stiff and turbulent winds at my personal max levels, the chief pilot came to us and asked how did we progress. My instructore was quick with the answer: all looks good. The chief pilot didn't waste a minute to ask me what I think, he just said - OK, we do the checkride now.
I was trying to say something, but what can you really say in a situation like this, without making a fool of yourself? So I got back into the cockpit, and off we went. A small notice: we have small hills near the threshold of the runway we used, so the winds were a bit unpredictable. And this was in a trustworthy SF-25 motorglider, in which we turned off the engine for landing, to ensure we don't damage the propeller.
So first checkride approach was too high, the chief pilot was visibly annoyed and asked me to go around. Second approach was OK, we taxied back, got out and off I went alone.
All I remember how well the plane climbed, how nice the view was without the instructor blocking the right side. I was also singing silently a military-style marching song inside. All went well until the last few 10 meters of the final. As I descended towards the runway, the stiff and choppy headwind suddenly calmed down. I retracted the spoilers, but still, I felt that airspeed was lost, control became mushy. Glanced at the speed, it was closer to the stall speed than where is should have been. But my height was no longer sufficient to ensure successful engine restart.
At that point I decided that I would rather land short of the runway, maybe in the bushes, than killing myself by stalling out. So I pushed the nose down, went down to ground level, rounded out, and then elegantly floated over the threshold in ground effect and immediately touched down. With a dry throat, all I could say on the radio "this was almost short". I was expecting that we abort the solo flying, go to the clubhouse and analyze what happened.
Then the strict voice of the chief pilot came over the radio with a determined command of "CONTINUE.". That's all he said! What can you say in that situation without making a fool of yourself?
So I continued with a takeoff and made a fairly good landing for second and third time.
Later on I asked the chief pilot: - Didn't you see that I barely reached the threshold? Weren't you concerned??? I hardly believed my ears when you said "continue".....
He said: - Yes, I saw that. But I also saw you did the right actions. And in the end, you made a smooth landing on the runway. That's all what matters.
He also turned to my instructor: He is OK to do the remaining solo circuits, but only in the normal sized circuit. He shouldn't do short finals yet.
They were tough guys with a lot of trust and motivation towards their student pilots. It was a very memorable day. No other (new type, or night) solos had the same effect on me.