Hello from Aus
Hi Cathy
I'm from Kirkintilloch, but now living in Melbourne - I log onto PPrune periodically and have a look at what's going on with General Aviation back home and picked up on your posts about Cumbernauld - I'm gutted to read it all.
I did a PPL at Cumbernauld Flying School - I finished it back in 2003. These were the days when the place was run by Ted and his wife Christine. I have to admit, I also paid up front, really cause that included all of the books, exams etc too.
Long story, but I had a relatively good experience during my PPL - and I stuck with the school for about a year or so after my PPL to hire the planes. For various reasons, I then moved down to Prestwick and joined Prestwick Flying Club - my flying experience just quite litterally took off from then - I LOVED it!!
The instructors are real pilots that do instructing for fun. My skills got better and my overall enjoyment got better - much more of a social side to it.
I'm not sure where you are based - Prestwick was obviously a bit more of a joint that Cumbernauld - but well WELL worth it.
I'll also tell you one wee story - once at Prestwick I soon bought a share in an aircraft that was kept down there. One sunny afternoon, I decided to take it for a flight up to Inverness. I called my girlfriend to see if she fancied coming along, which she did - and arranged to pick her up at Cumbernauld. I thought great - I'll pop in, get some lunch and say hello to Ted. When I got there, I found out that Ted had actually thrown her out of the cafe, telling her she couldn't wait in there for me - this was dispite me having paid him probably about 10,000GBP over the years. I couldn't believe it - but it sums it all up for me!
It will all work out - please let me know if you need any introductions at Prestwick. Please keep her at it!!
Good luck!
Edit - meant to send this as a PM - oh well!