Is it possible to buy the books for the 7 or 8 exams somewhere online second hand like ebay? Not sure what these books are called if so, as I didnt know what the titles were to actually search for!!
The most well known book are by Jeremy Pratt or Trevor Thom. They each wrote a series of books. Look at what the PPL starter pack at for instance AFE Online contains and search for those books on eBay. For most books it's not problem if they're a few years old. Aerodynamics doesn't change much over time. But the one book you'll eventually want to buy new is "Air Law".
Once getting the PPL how difficult and expensive is it to get the Instrument rating, night flying etc?!
Night rating is five hours and if you do an intensive course in Florida for instance, can usually be included in the 45 hours for your PPL. It's fun and not that difficult. The IR is at least another 45 hours on top of your PPL, and IR lessons are generally a bit more expensive than PPL lessons (due to the higher required qualification of the instructor) so budget at least 10 KUKP for this. However, an IR is only required if you want serious go-places capability. And serious go-places ambition requires money and time in any case.
Why is it you can fly friends and rent a plane but not "fly for hire" i.e. fly for someone and get paid?!
ICAO rules. But also the fact that if a passenger pays you, he expects on-time performance and tighter tolerances in your flying.
How difficult and expensive is it to go from a PPL to commercial, is it easy to get work afterwards and whats the return on investment as in how long is it before it starts "paying off"?!
The biggest expense for your CPL or higher is that you have to have 250 hours experience as pilot in command. That's why you see all these "hour building" packages being offered. The CPL course itself is something like 20 hours so not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
ROI... The only rather consistent statistic is that an ATPL costs roughly 100.000 euros and most pilots takes it several years to pay it back, while living on minimum expenses. For CPLs, it all depends what sort of job you can land, how often you can fly etc. etc.
There's a saying in aviation: How do you make a small sum of money in aviation? Start with a large one.
Finally, the instructor I had today advised me never get a share of a plane or think about buying one (i couldnt afford that anyway!!) as the cost of keeping a plane on the ground is huge.....what about if you buy a share etc, how much is it then, surely its shared, and how often within a year would you expect to have use of the plane in say a 8 person share.
Don't buy a plane now. Get your PPL first, rent for a couple of years to see what kind of flying you do. And only if you find that your type of flying is rather consistent, and is more than approximately 50 hours per year (which is quite a lot) consider buying a plane or a share. And, obviously, buy one that suits your style of flying.
Most of my flying today is aerobatics. Something I would not have expected two years ago when I did my PPL.
And last but not least hte most naive question of all, I would love the idea of being able to fly to france or Eire for a weekend, but rent on a plane is huge, is there anyway to do this cheaply or on a 3 day rate or something?!
Most planes are rented by the flying hour, so if the plane sits in France doing nothing while you go sightseeing, you pay nothing. The only caveat is that flying clubs/schools did not buy their planes to have them sit idle on the tarmac in France, so they require a certain minimum number of hours, on average, if you take them for multiple days. If you're generally a good bloke to your school/club, this minimum number is normally negotiable. Or you might get a good deal with a private owner who doesn't need his own plane all that often.
Most people who take an aircraft for a few days actually do a little touring, one or two short-ish flights per day, a different airport/hotel/city each night.