"Skylune" wrote:
Responsible guys like yourself who got their ticket years back have a huge
advantage over newcomers. I have to believe that the flight schools are
suffering.

I don't believe that.

It's all relative. People who got their tickets years back felt they
were paying through the nose, too. I worked at a flight school in recent
past ... our quote for the private rating was $8K, based on doing the
instruction in a C172SP, approximately 50 hours (give or take) and
supplies. You can, of course, select a less expensive airplane to rent
if one is available, and that cuts the cost *some*. Our school could
have employed more CFIs if more airplanes were available (if one is down
for MX, it's helpful to have more than one other available), and they
weren't the greatest at PR or promoting business. They added a surcharge
(x-amount/hour) to cover elevated fuel costs; people were happy when the
surcharge was dropped, but no one complained about it while it was in
effect, and few seemed to bat an eye at the $8K quote. I didn't see any
evidence they were "suffering"; in fact, there was potential for more,
had they been more open to spending a *fraction* of the profits at
promoting biz. Guess they didn't have to.