Hi Slim,
Thanks for your reply. I've had some P.M.'s on the subject that also suggest the pricing is more than a little 'off', so thanks also to those who took the time to P.M. me. Location wise, I'm in Scotland, not London, and we aren't very well served up here when it comes to choice of establishment to hire from, so the attitude from the S.F.H. providers tends to be very much that of 'Those are the prices. pay it. Or don't.' All in the nicest possible way of course, but thats effectively the gist of it.
I could reduce this hourly figure some if I pay for a block of 5/10/20 or 50 up front. But why should I have to be effectively held to ransom like this? Although I don't fear the honesty of either of the outfits I use, and don't feel they will skip off into the ether owing me cash, I just don't see why I should have to tie up a large sum of money just to get a decent rate, nor take the (however small) risk.
If I ran my own business like so, I'd be v.broke, v.quick. No question. When I hire a car from Avis while abroad on business, I don't have to drop a sizable sum of cash for future hires just to get a decent rate today, so why should aviation be different? Thats not a rhetorical question, if anyone from a SFH outfit can give me decent answer, I'll take time to think on it.
So, all said and done, it's looking like it's time to go traveling over the UK, get a decent rate to go play in a machine, and experience some new types (I've only flown Robbo's so far, and I'm itching to try something else) then just try and get a decent deal on the purchase of a machine to get my hours up to the level I need for CPL.
One other thing, certain rental outfits love to tell me how hard it is to make a living right now, and you can see it in the way they are aggresively chasing any business they can. With attitudes to pricing like those I've experienced, is it a wonder they see hour builders go elsewhere and low hour pilots (like me) just sod off and buy a machine?
Mad situation, isn't it?
Cheers.