Bill Gribble wrote:

Had my wife not been fool enough to have brought a trial lesson voucher
as a Christmas present, odds are I'd have never have done it for myself.
If nothing else, what I *perceived* as being the costs involved with
gliding were utterly prohibitive in my mind. But completely out of scale
with what I've actually found now that I've done it.
-Bill

I find that when people inquire about being a pilot and the cost,
instructors and other pilots invariably start talking about a license
and how much it costs (these are the same people who always talk
about the 100th time they almost died flying to newbies).
The staggering sums of $3000 to $8000 are mentioned (glider or power).
If somebody had told ME that, I'd have never taken up flying at all...

Instead I tell them "most people I teach will be flying alone, in an
aircraft, for about a $1000 to $2000, in about ten to twenty lessons."
If you have two weeks straight and come to the airport almost every
day, that'll usually do it, or you can stretch it out, and fly 2-3 days
a week for a coupla months...

I get a lot more students this way...