Why is everyone so obsessed with the cost of getting a license?
With the exception of anyone going on to do commercial training, it is simply not relevant. What is especially not relevant is the time it takes to get your license, and the costs associated with that time.
Mike - you say you took 72 hours to get your license. And I notice that it took you just short of 22 months. That works out at around 3 1/4 hours per month, which sounds perfectly reasonable. So, at £100/hr, you're paying around £325/month (I'm rounding some figures a little here - you quote your actual cost at £98/hr).
Now, let's imagine you'd got your license in the 55 hours you'd planned on. The total flying cost then would have been £5500 (as opposed to £7200 for 72 hours at £100/hr). You'd have completed your PPL in around 17 months - 5 months earlier. Then what would you have done for the next 5 months? Well, hopefully you'd have been flying! I don't know what rate you pay to hire post-PPL, let's call it £80, and let's also assume you fly for the same number of hours per month after getting your license. So your rental costs over the 5 month period would have been (5 * 3.25 * 80) = £1300. Total cost over a 22 month period of (£5500 + £1300) = £6800. A total saving of a whopping £400 - far less than the £1700 which it seems like you'd have saved at first glance! Of course all the other costs that you list, like books and exam fees, would be exactly the same regardless of how many hours you take.
I generally try not to tell people how much a PPL costs, because I don't think it's relevant. It's far more important to figure out how much flying costs, per month, and to make sure you can afford that. As long as you can afford the monthly cost of flying, you'll be able to afford the PPL. (The books, exam fees, license issue and so on need to be taken into account too, although they are relatively small and unlikely to make or break the issue of getting a PPL.)
Enjoy your new freedom now you've passed your skills test!
But don't expect it to get cheaper unless you're prepared to buy a share in your own aircraft.
FFF
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