Glacier.
I did aeronautical engineering at university, and around the time I graduated decided I really wanted a PPL to enhance my pleasure and understanding of the subject. Like any other graduate, I had very little money.
My solution was microlights - I found a local microlight club, and learned that way - a bit cheaper per hour, a lot less hours to qualify. It worked (in my case, about 1993 from old Sarum, in a 3 axis microlight). I later added flexwing microlights, light aircraft, and then a commercial licence and instrument rating, and most recently an aerobatic rating - clearly I'm never satisfied - but the initial start on microlights worked out really well for me and was *just* affordable, which light aircraft at that time wouldn't have been. For me as a new aeronautical engineer, it did also massively enhance my understanding of my work - for that matter, it still does, I'm just a much more senior aeronautical engineer in my late 40s now, whose (somewhat greater now) flying knowledge still gets called upon daily.
If not microlights, I would look at gliding, which can be very affordable if you go to the right place (prices vary a lot from place to place in gliding) and a continuous learning process - a lot of people get massive satisfaction from gliding competitions, which is a very serious sport.
Please take my word for it as somebody who has flown a lot of different things, none of these options are "inferior" or "superior" in terms of the aesthetic or learning experience. As your career is medicine, you don't care what sort of hours you're building, so any arguments about that shouldn't matter either.
G
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 30th Dec 2019 at 10:07.