The Cougar is $208 and hour. Not splitting the time and, since I am down here in Del Rio, not many people I know up in San Antone that want to wait for me to drive up every weekend. That is a good idea, though, so I will start asking around. The additional problem is that all my friends are AF pilots so they have no need to spend the money on the weekends - hard to find people that want the time.
Double Eagle Aviation in Arizona was reccommended to me for my CFI by the Border Patrol CFI I mentioned. I've called them and tentatively scheduled for March. I wanted an accelerated course that would really prepare me and not just pencil-whip the certificate. I plan on having binders, lesson plans, endorsements, etc. all good to go when I arrive. I've heard this instructor is fair but expects good preparation. It sounds like a thorough program, for which I'm willilng to pay a little extra.
There is a Private Pilot who works ATC here with me. He stays current in the Del Rio 172 so we split the $87 an hour cost and I practice from the right seat while he flies around to the little airports down here. Can't really log all of it as PIC, though, without the hood on one of us. I do this every month, though, because it's time-building, it's cheap, and it helps me practice from the right.
I'm preparing for the intial few years of a first-time flying job. Would like to minimize all debt - I don't mind being poor for a while as long as I'm getting paid to fly instead of paying to fly...that's getting a bit frustrating. Plus, my girlfriend (a nurse) has volunteered to be my "sugar mama" for a while so that helps a bit with the initial pay cut