the first solo

yes, i am officially a pilot now...at least in my mind:) i went on my first solo this last weekend. went up in the plane with my instructor for a few touch and go's and then we dropped him off at the hangar and i took the plane out all by myself. not gonna lie...i was a little nervous as i went up. i remember when i called tower to clear myself for takeoff i used the wrong runway call. oops! anyways, i got myself lined up and took off down the runway and into the air. i remember as i crossed the threshold i said ouloud to myself, "well, too late now" and i knew it was up to me to get myself down now. i made the initial climb and turn out towards utah lake and then leveled out at 5500' as i turned my downwind. i made sure i knew what i was going to say to tower this time as i made my midfield radio call. all was going pretty smoothly. as i was "beam the numbers" i pulled the power back and put in the flaps to begin my descent. this is when it all counts. on my touch and go's with my instructor i came in high every time. i was bound and determined no to make the same mistake again. i was landing in the oppisite direction as i had with my instructor so i was flying into a headwind instead of a tailwind to land, which helped dramatically. my airspeed dropped just right and my altitude was slowly slipping. i was a couple thousand feet from the runway and i added just a little bit of power to get me across the threshold. i crossed maybe 70 feet in the air and pulled all the power. i floated down, pitched back to bleed off some airspeed and slow me down, pitched back some more, kept pulling and pulling, and...bump bump...a nice soft touchdown. i was on the ground and alive! i popped the flaps back up and put in full power and tookoff to try again. twice more i did the same thing, except the last landing was a little harder than i had hoped:) but never the less and not withstanding i had done it. flown all by myself. a pilot i am and will be forever!