Hiya, I fly microlights( think you americans call em ultralights??) with my dad although I havent gone for my licence yet due to financial constraints so may be able to answer some of your questions,
If its anything like over here in the UK you have to do a minimum of 25 hrs instruction, at least 8 of those hours have to be flown solo, over seen by an instructor on the ground( for this purpose you are not allowed more than 25miles from where you took off from except when doing a cross-country navigation exercise, for which there will be an instructor on the ground at both the field you flew out of and at the one you are flying to) and you have to also do a series of classroom based exams including , meteorology, navigation, radio use/procedure/competence,air law, human limitations in flight (basically they chuck the aircraft into a deliberate stall or randomly turn the engine off mid-flight and you have to show you can recover from this immediately, in a safe controlled manner, get the situation sorted and return to safe,powered,level flight without instructor assistance) to name but a few.(if i remember rightly there are 7 exams in the UK)
Generally providing you are physically able( and pass the medical) are not a complete moron and put in the effort on average in the UK you can get through your Private Pilot`s License (PPL) for about £5000 and in under 35-40hrs.
Tuition rates over here are ROUGHLY:
With instructor--£120-150 p.h. (this will be the rough rate you pay per hour for the first 15-20hrs of instruction)
Flying solo, overseen by instructor on ground £120-150 p.h. if you use their aircraft + you have to take out your own insurance when flying solo £400-2000 per year depending on age/assumed risk, any pre-existing medical conditions etc, some airfields also make you pay to become a member before allowing you to fly from that airfield ( £20-150 a year) if you use your own aircraft and pay for your own fuel etc then the instruction rate for solo flights overseen by an instructor drop to around £50 p.h. but then you have the additional cost of buying your own fuel/lubricants etc.
One thing I will say though is that a lot of people when they first get into flying are not quite fully aware of just how quickly costs can mount up with tuition, failed trips to the airfield when weather is not right to fly etc, unexpected costs, exams costs etc, to get newly qualified as a Private pilot and to just buy and insure an aircraft can easily top £100k or be as cheap as £20-30k so its well worth maybe just finding someone local to you that has been through it all or even just hang around the local auirfield and get chatting to people, its amazing just how quickly strangers are taken under someones wing in the aviation world and it is very much a hobby that is very welcoming to new people.