Very old thread, but since I solo'ed recently I figured I would revive it.

I solo'ed this past Saturday. When I fly with my instructor I do all the flying, radio calls, etc. However, when I had to solo I was very nervous/scared. It really did not hit me until I had just taken off and was climbing out. I suddenly had the realization of "You better keep your ******* together and land this thing or you will die!"

My hands were sweating and heart was racing. First touch and go was OK. During the next climb out I calmed down a little bit but still was pretty darn nervous. I did 2 touch and go's and 1 full stop in total. I was pretty happy to finally be down when I landed. I enjoy flying a lot but I hope the nerves go away for soloing. I am supposed to do another solo soon.... probably this Saturday. I am supposed to fly out to the local practice area, fly around and do some basic maneuvers. So the flight will probably be about 1 hour.

Yesterday when I was flying, coming back from the practice area we had a weekend warrior buzzing pretty fast just below us going west (we were going east). He was not talking on the radio and I am pretty sure he did not see us. (He could of picked us up on ipad assuming he had one) but based on how he was flying I do not believe he knew we were there. Then as we got closer to the airport, he was back and now about 600'-800' below us and to our right. I turned away from him to get some more spacing.

The pattern was insanely busy. I could barely get my call into tower prior to entering their airspace (typically call 10 miles out) their airspace is about 5.8 miles. If I was solo with all of that it would of been extremely stressful for me. Shoot.... even with my instructor it was a stressful landing. I was #2 to land and the guy buzzing low was #3. I knew he was right up behind me and it definitely added to the stress. Once I landed, I fast taxied to get off the runway as quick as possible. Tower told him to go around just before I was turning off, but he said he could still salvage the landing so tower let him. By then I was already off. (We have an 8,000' runway, so plenty of runway) but that is how close he was to us. When we taxied back to the school, I looked over at the private hangars... that guy was hauling @$$ through the taxi way.

I am most nervous of a mid-air collision and/or crazy busy traffic pattern and tower wanting me to do some weird stuff. I am very comfortable with the pattern but when it is super busy and people keep talking over each other it gets stressful.

Did anyone else feel scared on their first solo? 2nd, 3rd etc.? I am assuming the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. How long did it take you to feel more comfortable soloing?