I really resent the premium us UK pilots have to pay for the honour of flying above our land in training aircraft from schools/clubs, and the sound of some sort of "class action" (for want of a better phrase) seems very tempting. Where exactly does the money we pay go anyway??? I would be very interested in look at the %breakdown of a typically hourly school rate. I hear lots of rhetoric about airfield charges/landing fees/fuel but if anyone can furnish us accurate detail on this I personally would find it very enlightening.
Whilst I'm at it, I would also like to throw in a sniffle at the general lack of true "self hire" organisations where you can arrive at a specific time and know the aircraft is actually present (i.e not long overdue) and fueled as per your request and ready to fly. We pay very high rental rate and, IMHO, get a raw deal on service in general. The FTOs from where I have hired from in recent times have a large fleet and should be able to offer a better service to their customers. Turning up and finding the aircraft is still covered, with hardly any fuel, missing entries in the log, low on oil, low battery and thus requiring an hour of sorting out before you get anywhere near the ignition is not good enough and I've regularly experienced all of the above (all in one slot once!).
Rant complete. Runway vacated.
That's just lousy customer service - but to be fair(ish) to the UK, I've had much worse service than that at at-least one US FBO.
G