The 45 hours for £4700 (incl. or excl. VAT?) seems reasonable - certainly less than it's costing me.
However, landing fees could potentially be an absolute killer during circuits (what does a touch and go cost? How much do six add to your hourly rate? You'll do a lot of them).
Ground school also seems expensive unless it's one-to-one, although if you do the bulk of the work yourself and then have an hour or two with an instructor to clear up any problems I guess it's OK.
To be honest I'm not sure how much the RAF time will help. In theory you only need a further 25 hours to get your PPL - to apply for a PPL you need 45 hours total, of which 25 are P.u/t and 10 P1 (and five those must be solo nav). I know it doesn't add up, it isn't supposed to. However I'd expect that you'll need to regain a lot of the skills learned during those 20 RAF hours - could you get in an aircraft today and do a flapless landing? Stall with power on? If not then that's stuff you'll have to repeat.
You've ultimately got to learn enough to pass the skills test - the magic 45 hours is really just a distraction (it is just the minimum needed to apply for a licence). People do complete the skills test and QXC within 45 hours - some do it in less and fit in a night rating too - but most people don't....
Last edited by Evo7; 14th May 2002 at 18:42.