Narrative:

The aircraft that I normally fly was unavailable. I had been taught to use the navaids and had demonstrated my use of the navaids with my instructor in that aircraft. The aircraft that I normally fly had a garmin 430 GPS and the radios work through the garmin. The aircraft that I flew this day had different control heads for the radios. I struggled with them during the flight. This greatly increased my stress level for my first solo cross country. The cross countries that I had done with my instructor were mainly to uncontrolled fields and a few to controlled fields and they were on the weekends when traffic was light. I landed at mvc without incident and then proceeded to bfm. Enroute I was informed by ATC that they were not receiving my transponder and I was informed to stay clear of the class C airspace which I did. I worked my transponder issue and then was cleared into the airspace at 2;000 and was waiting for clearance to descend. I flew as a flight engineer in the military; with 4;000 hours and mixed up that a VFR aircraft is not cleared to descend by ATC. This delayed my descent which added to the stress because I was high when tower cleared me for the approach. I had requested the option with approach and tower cleared me to land added confusion for me and I queried tower while I was on short final but did not get a response. When I released the mic switch I heard tower talking to another aircraft and clear them into position and hold for runway 36. Because of the confusion and the stress I was under I elected to takeoff and at the same time I heard tower tell the aircraft that taxied to runway 36 to hold position. I realized at that point that I had made a mistake electing to takeoff but was committed so I took off. What I could have done to prevent this action was not use an unfamiliar aircraft for my first cross country solo. Going to a controlled field during the week when it was busy should have been avoided. The stress level for a cross country solo was very high already and by taking an unfamiliar aircraft and for going to a busy field for a solo first time compounded my stress and affected my decision making. I will be flying with my instructor for a few flights when the class C airspace is busy and this will get me more proficient with busy airspace.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Student Pilot on his first solo cross country is assigned an aircraft with an unfamiliar radio comm panel which adds to the stress level of landing at a busy Class C airport. The option is requested but a clearance to land is received; confusing the reporter. Tower clears another aircraft into position on the opposite runway as the reporter adds power and over flies the aircraft in position.

Narrative: The aircraft that I normally fly was unavailable. I had been taught to use the navaids and had demonstrated my use of the navaids with my instructor in that aircraft. The aircraft that I normally fly had a Garmin 430 GPS and the radios work through the Garmin. The aircraft that I flew this day had different control heads for the radios. I struggled with them during the flight. This greatly increased my stress level for my first solo cross country. The cross countries that I had done with my instructor were mainly to uncontrolled fields and a few to controlled fields and they were on the weekends when traffic was light. I landed at MVC without incident and then proceeded to BFM. Enroute I was informed by ATC that they were not receiving my transponder and I was informed to stay clear of the Class C airspace which I did. I worked my transponder issue and then was cleared into the airspace at 2;000 and was waiting for clearance to descend. I flew as a flight engineer in the military; with 4;000 hours and mixed up that a VFR aircraft is not cleared to descend by ATC. This delayed my descent which added to the stress because I was high when Tower cleared me for the approach. I had requested the option with approach and Tower cleared me to land added confusion for me and I queried Tower while I was on short final but did not get a response. When I released the mic switch I heard Tower talking to another aircraft and clear them into position and hold for Runway 36. Because of the confusion and the stress I was under I elected to takeoff and at the same time I heard Tower tell the aircraft that taxied to Runway 36 to hold position. I realized at that point that I had made a mistake electing to takeoff but was committed so I took off. What I could have done to prevent this action was not use an unfamiliar aircraft for my first cross country solo. Going to a controlled field during the week when it was busy should have been avoided. The stress level for a cross country solo was very high already and by taking an unfamiliar aircraft and for going to a busy field for a solo first time compounded my stress and affected my decision making. I will be flying with my instructor for a few flights when the Class C airspace is busy and this will get me more proficient with busy airspace.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.