nothing quite like your first solo flight. congratulations to you on this one and many more to come. i know where you're coming from on the dead stick situation....been there and done that also. thankfully my first landings were ok...like yours. i also have a duraplane 20......this one is on floats and is just finished and ready to go. just a thought on your engine pooping out on you. try running a little more fuel to it (richer) and see what happens. it is said that when the plane takes to the air, the engine tends to lean out a bit...therefore, starting out rich results in a closer fuel mixture during flight conditions. i'm not an expert on this but i do try to run a little rich on the bench before my flights and it really does seem to work for me. no deadsticks for quite a while now since i've been using this method. again, congrats and have a ball! here's my duraplane 20