Why would you want to "hide" or "sugar coat" anything? Doing that only makes a person upset later on down the road when it starts costing more than they were told it would. Same thing with the difficulty of learning to fly. In this case I think that 100% honesty is the only way to deal with people interested in the hobby. This may sound a bit cold, but this is an expensive hobby and if somebody doesn't have the money then they shouldn't be thinking about doing it. Either that or find a way to come up with the money, or a creative way to participate.

Non-of us are "salesmen" for this hobby. I know that I'm not. I try to let somebody know exactly what to expect as they get into the hobby. That way they don't have unpleasant surprises later on. Those usually lead to someone giving up and walking away from the hobby with a bitter taste in their mouth, and then they will do nothing but spread bad info about the hobby.

That's my 2¢ worth.

Ken