Originally Posted by
rmcb
Therein lies the rub - you will be paying for peace of mind - therefore it will be more expensive.
The school gets the advantage of a guarantee that the money is there so can offer discount, the student gets the guarantee that they'll get their money back if the school vanishes (I'd assume no such guarantees if they change their mind).
So, I'd anticipate, since both win, an Escrow cost sitting somewhere between PAYG and up-front.
When Pegasus Aviation (now part of P&M) was developing the CT they used Escrow for early orders, with guaranteed return of the money if the aircraft wasn't delivered within a period of time. This worked really well for everybody - orders were confirmed so Pegasus could borrow against it to fund certification and initial production, whilst customers felt certain they wouldn't lose their money either way.
No reason that couldn't work in flying training.
G