"Some people have a rather strange view of things, in that they are happy to pay £160 an hour and £1.80 per litre of avgas but begrudge a tenner"
Well quite. Private flying is an expensive hobby in UK. I dabbled four years ago, got 18 hours in and loved every minute, but justifying £100 plus per hour, just for local flights, was too much. So I stopped.
I reckon in UK if you want to persue the hobby and fly say, three or four times a month, and to different airfields, you are looking at a realistic outlay of upwards of £500 per month. And that is in a 'school' spamcan, weather permitting. Landing fees and 'handling' charges (if applied) at other airfields will not help.
My Base airfield was Liverpool EGGP. Nice as you had to circle to let the EZY 737s in before you could land. However I shudder to think what the landing fee might have been had my home school not been based there?
In UK a very expensive hobby. Nice if you can afford it though
