I have only just stumbled upon this and the "worst decision" thread, and I empathise with a lot of blastcalvey's sentiments.
I have been an FI for over 30 years and thoroughly enjoyed it, but part-time only because I needed the day job to keep me afloat. I am now 'retired' from the day job and would like to contribute to relieving the apparent 'shortage problem', but have been unable to secure any part-time work at my local aerodrome (which has three fixed-wing schools). For me the problem seems to be 'part-time' and, dare I say, age. One of the schools emphasised that they needed full-timers continuously on-site, and had no need for part-timers. Another has kindly 'kept' me on their books' for part-time work, but not called me since my previous renewal. I have been offered work, but some significant distance away where commuting costs render that as totally impractical. There are limits to how much of my own funds I am prepared to spend to teach wealthy students, therefore I have accordingly allowed my FI rating to lapse. If there really is a 'shortage' then it's more the industry's loss than mine.