It sounds harsh to fly in the UK
I wouldn't say harsh: in fact I'd argue that to learn in this environment - with its difficult weather (for VFR) and complex airspace, especially around London and the south east, is a positive advantage: if you can cope here you can cope most places!
I think its wrong to call the airspace "privatised" - it belongs to Her Manjesty I suppose: here in Europe the impulse is to urge on the side of regulation, where in the US the impulse is more generally to err on the side of freedom. Greater separation is provided between IFR and VFR in a lot of our airspace, especially close to LHR which is the world's busiest international airport. Its always interesting to me to see how the airspace is differently handled on the US eastern seaboard where you have the freedom to fly right through the climb-out and descent paths of your major airport clusters (like Newark, La Guardia, JFK, Boston to name a few).
What is true though is that we don't enjoy the subsidies / traffic levels that many of your private airports do: hence the charges generally made here for landing fees (typically $10 ~ $20 for a light single per landing). This is less true in France and varies elsewhere in Europe.
Moroever, our flying costs are generally about 2 to 3 times higher per hour than yours are : this is primarily due to much higher fuel costs.
But don't let these things put you off: my earlier point was that it is a great advantage for anyone AS A PILOT to gain the experience of flying in foreign environments, and I hope you one day get that chance.
Meanwhile, enjoy your license!
Andy
