Dave,
No problems,
All hours building was in the UK. Based in the midlands I used Tatenhill and Donair.
Both are very reasonable (generally within 5 or 10 pounds of £100 per hour when I did it), virtually all was cessna 152 to keep costs down. Donair used to give 5% discount I think it was for purchasing a 10 hour block. Whilst I am an advocate of not paying up front, this was a calculated decision because I would literally put £1000 in the account before flying 9 or 10 hours in the next 2 or 3 days! When I used them both the hourly rates included home landings, so I could keep circuit skills up to date by doing a couple of circuits every now and again at the end of each flight.
Both organisations were terribly nice to deal with, instructors excellent for currency checks and SEP revalidations. Donair has the advantage of operating out of East Mids with all the facilities and procedures applicable to a full airport. The only disadvantage was occasionally sitting on the ground or orbiting on the base leg as it's a busy place and wake seperation is an issue. Quite eye opening to be following a 737, taxying in your 152! Tatenhill is much easier to get in and out of and has much less stringent departure or recovery due to no control zone, but doesn't have the corrersponding ATC services.
Both organisations have plenty of 152's and all nicely maintained, never had to cancel a flight due to tech. Can't say the same about DA40's or DA42's when doing my CPL and IR
Trying to make flights a minimum of 1 1/2 hours but preferrably 2 hours each makes for a numb bum but is far more efficient. Landings away were completed using the free landing vouchers from the periodical flying magazines. Got to visit some fabulous places as a result. Very worthwhile sitting down an planning a route from East Mids to Lands End for example. Even more worthwhile to then fly it, it's a hell of a long way in a 152, but with the right planning can be done with no headaches. Nav over Norfolk and Lincolnshire is challenging due to the topography and trying to find places like Fenland are worthwhile exercises because my CPL nav leg was to a grass strip field in poor but legal VFR visibility. It was a moment of pure joy looking out with 2 mintes to go and seeing the field drift quitely intoview with 30 seconds to go!
I went for as many MATZ penetrations, zone crossings as I could to keep R/T and controlled airspace familiarity levels high.
I would say that 8 out of 10 flights were visual nav with clock, map compass only. Funny old thing breezed the CPL nav section
the remaining 20% of the flying was made up of visual flying but navigating by VOR and ADF, or general handling. The GH included circuits in all configurations, practicing accurate flying skills, slow flying, steep turns etc.
All in all some of the most enjoyable flying I have done.
Regards,
Obs