So, I am a beginner, but often my ambitions exceed my capabilities, so I feel confident doing things I know I shouldn't try.

Knowing this about myself, I intentionally tried to slow myself down. I built my GreatPlanes PT-40 kit, and am proud of it, and I don't want to crash it ... So, I took the spirit of all the advice in this forum, joined a good club, and had buddy box instruction. All of 3 flights. The wind has been really strong on all flying occasions, so the instructor would take off, hand the controls over, and later would land for me. On my first flight he had to recover the plane a few times from me ... we were being very informal about the training on this flight, and I was "getting a feel" for the plane. On the second, we took a more formal approach, and I flew rectangles, figure 8's, and threw in a few loops.

The third flight we did similar things, but started some approaches as well. He is a chatty instructor, and I appreciate that, but we were chatting on one particularly good/lucky approach, and he says "well, why don't you land this one....", so I did. It was as bouncy as hell, but it was sufficient.

Well, that was wednesday night last week, (wednesday evening, and Sunday Mornings are beginners sessions at the club).

On sunday, the weather was wet and windy, but my parents had come in from overseas (first time I saw them in a while), and I wanted to show off my plane. After lunch the rain was gone, and the clouds were dissipating, so I packed up the plane, and went with my father to the field hoping that there would be an instructor. Well, there was no-one at all. The wind-sock was horizontal, so I told my dad that I was not going to try to fly, but just taxi around the empty field, and get a feel for the ground handling of the plane. I had never actually taxied at all, the instructor had always flown the taxi/take-off.

So, I gear up, and head off around the field. For 20 minutes I circuit the field on the ground, and even my dad has a go. Finally, (I have a nearly full tank), I say to my dad, "well, I came to fly....". So I head off in to the wind and seconds later I am airborn. Now I am committed, and my legs are jello. Flew a few circuits, got the trim right (for some reason I needed to adjust the ailerons substantially to the left from the normally perfect center trim position). Got straight an level, and decided it was time to attempt a landing.

The wind is strong, but consistent (and in the same direction as when I was with the instructor flying approaches). I fly the pattern, and am comming in smooth and level, so I just let the plane follow it's own glide path to the ground. I was high to start, so the landing happened two-thirds along the runway, but it was soft until I turned (with too much speed), at which point it nosed over to the side on the tricycle gear, and had an at-idle prop-strike.

Having witnessed some other less than perfect landings, I can safely say that this one is pretty average for a beginner.

All in all, I was whooping from joy and relief. My dad was all worried about the plane because of the prop-strike, but I knew it was fine. My legs were shaking, and I was extatic.

Now, my beginner's question is this:

How do I tell my instructor that I have soloed without him getting mad at me .... ;-)

gus