My first scare while flying occurred while I was flying solo using the privilege granted by my Restricted Pilot License.  I was carrying out forced landing practice which meant descending without power to a minimum altitude of 250′ before opening the throttle to fly away again.  The temperature in the area was fairly high, perhaps around 40 degrees C and I set up an approach to a field that had been freshly ploughed.  If I had really lost engine power I would not have chosen such a field because it would prevent a very large risk of the aircraft tumbling over as it’s nose wheel dug in.

As I crossed the boundary of the field I decided it was time to open the throttle and climb away however, full throttle applied the aircraft continued to descend.  Just as saw a telephone wire out the right window and was deciding that I would have to attempt an actual landing I flew over the opposite boundary of the field and the aeroplane began, slowly, to climb.  By the time I had climbed back to 1,000′ everything was normal again and I returned to the airfield feeling very lucky.

As emergencies go this one does not rate very high but the outcome could have been very different.