sapperkenno - many thanks - good to know that. Sadly I am a bit too far south to take you up on that but noted and will retain that just in case.
Peter - right on all those points. In the end you can only go along with what the other party is comfortable with. I did point out that one could travel as a pax on the positioning flight as long as one wasn't charged, and given that they didn't intend to charge for the positioning flight that could have worked, but to no avail. The instructor in the rhs if no charge for the flight would have also worked as you suggest, but if there was a charge for renting the a/c then I am guessing the dft question would have stopped that plan too. That instructor was 'hourly rate' but it all was just over complicated and didn't work for me, even before deciding how to get to le touquet and back under my own steam.