Hi Paul,
All your points are valid.
What is there for you to do next after all the ratings and 180 hours ? Renting is expensive.
I see you are at Guildford and not that far from Lasham Gliding Society (nr Basingstoke). Lasham is child and partner friendly and have a child play area (over £1,000 spent on games and toys this year alone), good bar and restaurant. All this week there is a competition with 100 pilots racing against each other for 5 hours a day, except today when its raining, if you have time off pop up and watch. 200 movements in one hour is a spectacle worth watching!!
Converting to gliding is relatively easy if you find the right instructor and with some gliding experience you should be able to fly towplanes. A winch launch cost £10, soaring is cheap. Glider pilots do some interesting and challenging flights in UK and abroad.
In gliding you can local soar or go cross country, fly fast plastic gliders or enjoy the Vintage scene. Vintage is big at Lasham with old gliders being rebuilt and displayed in the purpose built Heritage centre, and regularly flown.
http://www.glidingheritage.org.uk
There are times when lots of kids are around for your to play with and the teenagers learn to glide a low cost on Saturday evenings and solo @ 14 years old. There are sometimes 10- 20 youngsters having fun on a Saturday evening.
Owning a 1/3 share in a basic glass glider can cost around £3,000 and cost £700 per year for all the flying you want, just add launches, club membership and beer for a fun year.
Some UK flights from Lasham have exceeded 750 kms this year (click on the link to see a map of the flights
Daily Scores ), returning safely to base while others enjoy much shorter local flights in open cockpit vintage gliders.
Worth a try before you hang up your headset?
bb