I know it's not near Reading, but it might be worth having a wander up to Cranfield. There are so many flying schools there and its worth having a walk around and looking for the best deal. I did my JAR PPL in 45hours over about 4 months on the C150/172 and it came to just over £5000 inc books, tests, medical, landing fees etc. Very good value and excellent training at www.billinsair.freeserve.co.uk . All the best

I don't think £9000 is unusual, given that the average time to complete is well over 45 hours. I took about 70 hours, plenty of people (mostly "old" ones) take 90-100. Changing schools or instructors makes things more expensive but is unavoidable if the original choice was less than great.

Don't just look at the obvious costs. There are a lot of other factors involved.

Go to the school, see if you like the atmosphere, see if you'd feel happy there. Who are the instructors; are they experienced career instructors, or low hours hour-builders who can't wait to get an airline job? Don't get me wrong, some hourbuilders are fine. But some aren't...and can add hours and hours to your training by their bad attitude.

Also, how does the school charge - engine on to engine off, brakes off to brakes on, or tacho hours? It can make a difference of 5-10 minutes in every hour. Does the school charge home landing fees? If it's a busy airfield, how long will you have to wair for departure; that too can eat into the costs.

I'm sure there are more things to be considered which I haven't thought of; someone help me out here.

But do some visits, ask some questions, and look at the whole picture.

Some = an hour or two, which at £150 per hour *may* be £300. When you're talking of $6000 as opposed to £6000 then £300 may not make much of a dent.

The weather is NOT that different here. It may be cooler here, but believe me you can get sh*te weather here, there, in the middle of the desert, in LA, in Miami, in France, in Norway, in Greenland....where ever.

In fact you can get nice weather here too, believe it or not.

If anything, the only difference weather will make is that you will end up paying more in a crappy climate due to cancellations, currency or whatever.

There, glad I got that off my chest. ;)