Without checking Ben, that price sounds fairly competitive for the UK, however, you can do intensive 3 week courses in America for as little as £3500, Inc travel & accomodation - but I'm not sure how well reccomended this is for a potential UK PPL.

The PPL in the UK  requires a minimum of 45 hours total flight time which includes: 25hrs of dual instruction, 4hrs of pilot navigation & 2 hrs of stall/spin awareness training & 10hrs of pilot-in-command (solo)(5hrs of which is navigation). Plus your ground exams & skill test.

Remember 45hrs is the minimum, but many people take longer, so you can't just allow enough money for a minimum 45hrs.
At the very least, you should consider doing a trial flight.

Cheers,

TSC.

Well my sister wanted to go to Texas (near Houston) on holiday, but she can only go with me there. So would you suggest I go with her and get some practice on the cheap there then, before taking up a course here?

P.S TSC any info about that travel, accomodation,flight package?

Quote:

As Charlie said, any of the PPL orientated magazines have ads in the back for the US schools, the one I noticed was in 'Today's Pilot', the school was this one Ormond Beach Aviation in Florida. Although, I know nothing about this school, so I can't reccomend them as such.

Or there is Trade Winds, in Florida. They were also advertising in Today's Pilot.

Cheers,

TSC.

I'm currently 15 hours into my PPL training at EGSP ( Sibson) and they gave me almost the same quote of £4,500- £5000. However, that is for the minumum amount of hours needed to obtain the license. As TSC and Charlie said, it is often better to have more hours than that.

Not sure how it works across the pond, but over here the best value for training is to join a flying club.
The deposit required to join is refundable if you leave, monthly dues are reasonable,the hourly rates (usually less per hour than a typical flight school) are usually tach time and not Hobbs time, and most clubs have members who are CFIs with all necessary credentials and experience teaching the way most flight schools teach.
Finding the right club for you could be as challenging as finding the right school, but you could save a lot of money , and even a lot of time (many clubs have lots of paying members, which means more money in the kitty for planes, etc., but often a club will not have many active members, which means the planes are free more often), by learning to fly as a club member.
  A flight school might offer a good discount for time if a deposit is made up front, but I still think, generally speaking, that a club is a less expensive way to go... wish I'd started that way.

BTW, through a typical NYC-area flight school, I spent about $7000 over two years getting my PPL, about 10 years ago. Only slightly more time and money than the average...