Ann Robinson syndrome ?
First I would like to thank Mandator for puting flesh on the bones of what I had said, my reseach into this matter only went deep enough to decide that the Bulldog was not the aircraft for my business because of the spar issue costs.
What seems to be a very worrying train of thinking from some of the posts above is a hint that "someone is ripping the poor pilots off" and no doubt "they" whoever "they" are are getting rich and stoping the fun.
This is the type of thinking that I would expect from the likes of Ann Robinson and the rest of the BBC's Wachdog team.
I do think that the BAe price to fix the Bulldog spars was aimed at the MoD with a veiw to them not looking at it to hard at the price before saying "yes" to the work. I also think that the "real world" engineers in the GA industry can bring the price down BUT there is no getting around the techincal issue of the fatigue life of this wing structure.
This is not a "consumer issue" it is not an industry "rip off" it is about keeping the wings firmly attached to the aircraft and it is not going to be cheap, the RAF did the sums on this and that is why they replaced the aircraft.