Lurking about with a flu virus from hell, this is a joyful find. On cost etc, having failed Hamble selection part one, AH Abbott steered me towards BUA but I failed the first stage interview of that too. However, got a BKS sponsored Cadetship at OATS in 1971. Ministry of Aviation no longer involved in funding so BKS paid all costs with graduates repaying one third (roughly) over five years from salary. As others have said, it was about a thousand quid. BKS/Cambrian cadets did quite well because we went straight from OATS or AST Perth to RHS Viscount. After Final Line Check (about three months) we were promoted from Second Officer (albeit flying P2 as Second Officers) to FO on 3 grand a year. That is the point at which BKS started taking back the one grand. We hardly even felt the repayment and after one year there was a salary review which wiped out the monthly repayment and all was bliss. I think the Hamble and other similar schemes were very good value indeed. One grand, then, representing, roughly, one quarter of costs. Today's stated comparison of twenty grand would make training cost 80,000 quid. I believe it costs a lot more than that today & Mum & Dad are usually funding. Glory days indeed.