PompeyPaul
I think that you should be careful about what you say about paying up front. It is not a scam/sign of a company in trouble etc.
Small and medium businesses love people paying up front for goods and services. It is good for cashflow and allows a business to be more optimistic about the future. When you have lots of cash in the bank you are more likely to do things like have aircraft refurbished, invest in better facilities or more staff.
Bank loans are expensive and a waste of money if you can have good cashflow from customers paying up front. Customers love this since they get reduced cost flying. Everyone wins.
The PPrune users are not particularly helpful when they insist on telling people not to pay upfront. Very few flying schools are financially unstable or are run by crooks.
I suspect that most PPrune users are so tight for cash that the concept of paying £5K up front is so alien to them that they always try to discrourage others from spending money.
If I ran a flying school I would always encourage customers to pay upfront - In my current business everyone pays upfront.