My first solo wasn’t terrifying, I thought I could do it and did it. I was anxious, stressed, but that’s good I was told so I just did it. What I found much more challenging was the first cross country solo.. until I was in the plane, then I went calm.
To me, both the first solo and the first landing away were non-events. The memorable “first” was the first flight into controlled airspace – when you imagine the ATC to be a firebreathing dragon ready to incinerate you for failing to understand, busting a clearance, or using incorrect phraseology, and find a clear, sweet and helpful female voice talking to you instead, it’s memorable indeed.
There seems to be a key difference between civilian and military instructors here.
However in the military you have very good and young candidates because all the others have been ejected 
The first solo I remember the most is the first time I went refueling the plane alone, while my instructor was debriefing the previous student. Run the checklist, talk to the tower, taxi to the main apron, and back, somehow this stuck more in my brain than an n+1-th time landing the plane. Maybe because I totally did not expect it. Maybe the total trust in his voice when he told me “You know how to operate the pump, right? So go while I finish up here”. I’m sure he looked through the window and had his portable VHF on, but still.
My first solo was a fairly non-event. It came after many hours of grinding, mostly because my home field always has crosswind and turbulence from the trees surrounding it, so we don’t get to learn landing first and crosswind landing later. The one evening in 2 weeks when the wind died it turned out landing is not so hard in still air. That and not flaring at 30ft AGL.
Second solo landing I did a go around. Our instructors keep repeating “a go-around is never a bad decision”, so that was fine.
During my solo long nav, I had to do a touch-and-go at a large-ish local airport, but the RWY I got was not the one I had planned for, was a lot shorter and I had never landed on it either, so I had to get back to my VAC chart, improvise a circuit and land on the numbers.
Every first time to a new airport or a new runway kind of makes it into the memory bank.
Anyone totally terrified when faced with a first solo is not ready.
Anyone totally terrified and still going through with it, I would question their ability for decision making. Totally terrified would mean to me, I’d refuse to do the solo untill a time when I am not. Anyone who is in such a state is not able to function properly, will not be able to take proper decisions during the first solo and is therefore not ready and possibly may never be.
For me, many many moons ago, the first solo was a non-event until after, when the instructor and some mates were waiting for me to celebrate. It was an important achievement, but the actual act of going up alone was pure joy. I had 9 hours under my belt at the time as I checked in my logbook and I felt confident to do it. My instructor also gave me the feeling that he had confidence in me, so I was happy to go ahead when he left the airplane in mid lesson with a big grin.
My first solo was at EGFE Haverfordwest. I wasn’t terrified, but as I went up I felt that everything is in my hands now.
I don’t remember my first cross country.
Only scare that I had during PPL was when I forgot to put flaps up when on runway and did it shortly after taking off.
I can certainly remember both my first solo and my first x-country! Interestingly, some decision making was required during both of them.
- at my first solo, an airplane ahead didn’t vacate the rwy quickly enough (at least not for my taste!), so I went around and did it again – two solos (or should that be soli?)!
- the first x-country was a bit trickier. The pax door (PA28) popped open about 10 mins into the flight. Tried to close it, no joy. Decided to carry on – after all this is pretty much a non-event, it just trail open by an inch or so, but then also ran into wx I didn’t like. Open door, scud running – nah, decided to head home and go it alone the next day. Which I did. Even the door remained locked !
Silvaire wrote:
My first solo was on my 16th birthday, in the early evening, smooth air on a warm day. I remember the plane jumping into the air, and singing very happily to myself as I went around a few times. I wasn’t scared but at 16 you’re immortal anyway.
Sharing similar experience on my first solo with glider (although few months older than 16), on late autumn afternoon, singing when aero-tow took off, released rope after few minutes, made several turns left and right and landed. The only suprise was lightness of glider because of missing instructor but he warned me about that.
I think the first solo land away is a bigger deal than first solo
I had exact this. Firs solo was interesting but not so exciting. A circuit I’ve done hundred times with all that visual clues around. The only real difference was "wow, it’s a rocket now, 1000ft before turning crosswind. First XC and landing somewhere I never been before was much more exciting.
In my experience the situation on the first XC solo is a lot different. By then the student is quite competent to land his aircraft solo, and the difficulties are not in basic flying anymore. Since even an airspace bust won’t get you shot and you have all help you can get by FIS or diverse ATC units around, if necessary, I have not found much more nervous students than prior first solo flight.
For some pilots this is just overwhelming. I had one student who stopped after the second circuit saying he was full od adrenalin and needed to stop for the day. He was so overwhelmed, he cried tears of happiness after the flight. Was a really great moment.
@BackPacker: It wasn’t a solo but a demonstration of good airmenship and judgement.
