Another way of reducing the cost is to fly something a little different.
I'm always amazed at the prices of some single seaters. I've seen a few shares for sale (none recently, but then I haven't been looking at For Sale boards recently) for under a thousand pounds, with monthly fixed costs of around £10, and around £10/hour wet to fly.
If you don't want a single-seater, it's still worth looking at PFA aircraft, which are often cheaper to run due to reduced cost of being able to maintain them yourself, and better fuel economy due to more "interesting" designs. My 2-seat Europa, for example, cost me £6500 for a 1/6th share. I pay £50/month, and £15/hour dry, which works out at around £22/hour wet at 100kts cruise (10 litres of MoGas per hour) or £25/hour at 125kts (15 litres per hour). Compared to the price I was paying to rent a Super Cub before, that's a bargain!
FFF
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