My Day in the Sun.

I've had a few. Not as many as the bad ones, but as the story goes Any Day you wake up breathing, is a good one.

So I had done my share of mistakes in flight training. I had done some things right. There was alot of middle ground.
One of my Best friends was my Flight Instructor (CFI). I had traded him some Electrical Work for Flight Training. I only needed to pay for the Aircraft Rental.
That was substantial during those days and actually still is.
I paid roughly $65 and hour for the aircraft. Usually it takes a student around 100 hours to complete training. One reason for the higher costs was that we used a Cessna 172 instead of the usual smaller 152 or Beechcraft Skipper. I'm at just below 6 feet and my instructor was taller and outweighed me by half. Not good in a small airplane in the middle of a California Summer. Add to the fact he previously owned the airplane and knew it's history. Which is pretty important in aviation.
It was a wonderful aircraft to fly in.
My CFI was a pretty sharp cookie and could spout out the mathematics of flying on the move, having the answer before I could even decipher the question.
He said I picked up everything fairly quick. All but the landings.
Now it's not that I was bad, but more about him being a perfectionist when it came to greasing the pavement.
I could always count myself to having everything perfect until the last flare upon touchdown and do something to make it unprofessional.
I had logged just enough dual time to go solo when my day came.
Just out of the blue I was noticing him being unusually quiet and during my landing attempt the wheels never made a sound, they just started rolling. Perfection beyond Perfection.
He quite alarmingly yelled "That was F*&% Nice!".
He said "Taxi to the building I want a drink of water".
Once we got close, he jumped out and said "Go, give me three takeoffs and three landings". In a sheepish reply, I asked "Three?"
"Yep. Go. Your ready".
I actually was. I noticed the airplane really picked up speed much quicker and flew more responsive without his extra weight. Other than the feeling that I really have to get all this right now, since my nearest help is 2000' below me, I only remember how well the airplane flew.
That is why to this day I knew I was ready. I don't have any recollection of being scared.
Once back on the ground and after my Triple Play. I stepped out and he tradionally cut out the back of my shirt.
He wrote the Day, Location, Airplane, and scribbled "Three?" on the back. He said he always wrote his student's reply about being tasked with their first solo.