BP,
Your future is our present, apart from the under £100 an hour!
When we bought Strathaven Airfield nine years ago, we traveled to see about 50 other airfields around the UK (and had memories of others we had flown into in the UK, Spain and the USA).
We saw the future as BMAA/LAA aircraft, like the Eurostar pictured. It seems we are correct, having gone from 3 aircraft at Strathaven to 31 at the last count - despite the credit crunch.
Have to disagree with the under £100 an hour, though.
In Strathaven, you can buy a one-bedroom flat from £15,000 / £18,000 / £20,000 - see
UK's number one property website for properties for sale and to rent for postcode ML10. Yet the local garages charge around £60 per hour.
With a typical "one hour" lesson taking two hours in the diary because of ground briefs, refuelling, coffee, etc then we'd need to be £120 an hour just to match the garage!
Add in the fact that we only flew two days last February, or it is dark until 9:30am and dark again at 3:30pm in December (so two lessons and a trial flight, if you are lucky), then you can see the costs have to be higher than £120 an hour.
In fact, think of the cost of the equipment. I don't know anyone who leases Eurostars or C42s. So microlight schools have to purchase their own aircraft - even garages can lease their heavy gear.
So, again, someone somewhere has to pay that cost.
Yes, you may dream of sub-£100. But if it happens (and it does in places) it is simply not sustainable. Perhaps the owner is forgetting about depreciation (I saw a 2,800 hour C42 up for sale at £32k, and a few years ago we bought two 300 hour C42s for £39k) , perhaps his/her instructors are working for nothing because they have pensions etc. I even know of one school that used to charge its (assistant) FIs.
Cost is not a problem in flying. Have a look at yachting - and see how many boats there are in marinas!