Bob, yes it's a good ticket to have. You can instruct in weather that will stop PPL instruction, you get a better understanding of IF and become more familiar with the nuances of procedural flying and you will be a better IF pilot yourself. In addition, if your eventual goal is commercial aviation you will be much more current when it comes to a sim ride. You are normally paid more for IMC instruction as well, aces low has got a raw deal there.
As for convincing PPLs to do it, I have found that is not an issue as most people, once they have flown Ma & Pa and mates around for a few weekends and missed a few flights due to crap weather, want to do it anyway. So no, don't try to convince people unless they are a bit mad and keep trogging off into the crud with their PPLs anyway.
Keygrip, don't quite follow your train of thought there. Instructors are paid poorly enough (in the UK anyway) without becoming a charity. It's not a question of integrity, if a chap hires a plane he pays the solo rate so no pay for the instructor. If he's training for the IMC rating he has to log the hours as Pu/t anyway so I don't really see where the aerial work question comes in. At the school where I instruct there is no charge for groundschool so he's getting a good deal anyway.
Snakecharmer, think you may be overreacting a bit there. I didn't read that into Bob Fleming's question and I don't see much 'milking' going on. Students aren't stupid and can make up their own minds. You could argue that it is better to get people to do their IMC ratings to keep them in aviation and not join the ranks of the lapsed PPLs - which is much worse for GA than any inexperienced instructors could ever be.
Does that help, Bob ?
