G'day Robert,
Regarding other people's comments about paying in advance for a trial flight, I can't see any problem.
The cost is minimal (as compared with other flying costs) and seeing as it'll be given as a Christmas present it's fairly unlikely the flying school will go bust by then. Crimbo's only 24 days away for Chrissakes! I had a voucher that wasn't redeemed until 2 months later - no worries at all.
However, assuming your friend gets bitten by the bug and plans to continue flying, I wouldn't recommend that he then paid for his entire GFPT or PPL training up-front as a package to ANY flying school, no matter how big or how long they have been established, simply because of the time it can take to complete; the longer his training takes, the more chance there is that his chosen flying school could go broke. Possible, but an unlikely, unlucky and completely unpredictable scenario. You can only rely on personal recommendations about flying schools but no business advertises the fact they're slowly going under, so don't lose sleep over it.
If he does continue with it, advise him to pay as he goes. Undoubtedly he'd get a better, cheaper deal paying up-front for a job-lot of lessons, but when you're talking about costs in the thousands, I certainly wouldn't be risking it.
I hope your budding pilot friend enjoys his present. I bet he will. I started flying thanks to a Christmas present last year and not only is it the best gift I've ever received, I'll always be grateful to my family for making me take up something I'd always dreamed of but never thought possible. Reassure your mate that it is possible, he doesn't need to be a genius, tell him to be diligent with his homework and to stick at it, even when a lesson or two doesn't seem to be going his way.
Do that and like me, he'll love every last bloody minute of it. Good on yer Rob, it's a fantastic Chrissy prezzie....your mate's gonna love you forever
