FormerCA, I know your pain. I was out on my first completely solo flight with my trainer last summer. I took off and had a pretty nice takeoff. Banked left to come around back toward me and I hear this HUGE bang. I thought that someone shot of a gun. The next thing I know, I'm seeing what's left of my plane immediately turn into a very expensive (for me anyway) lawn dart. Come to find out, I banked directly into a bird. The only thing that I was happy about is my wife saw the dirty sucker floating in the pond at the end of our runway.