I think
A and C is making a good point: the trouble is I have no experience to compare against what I perceive to have been very professional standards at the
British Airways Flying Club at Wycombe (I hasten to add that reports of Wycombe Air Centre at the same airfield are also generally positive as far as I have heard).
I think it's not only about individual instructors. Keith A was great - a very practical and conscientious/serious attitude (in the air at least
!) borne of years of practical non-pilot operational RAF experience (although he has since left and is in fact flying with BMI out of East Midlands now), but I have found all the instructors I have flown with at Wycombe to have very high standards. I think there are two reasons: a) the guys / girls themselves are mature high-calibre people; and b) moreover the boss - CFI John Harthill - rules the roost with a notoriously firm hand and ensures no-one (student, PPL qualified club member or instructor!) ever forgets what the standards are! I swear the guy can see what we're doing even when we are 40NM north of the airfield!
But as I say, I have little experience of training to compare this with (other than the odd check-ride with other clubs in the UK and elsewhere as mentioned). I hear people say that not all training organisations are like this, but then I also hear others speak just as highly of other places.
Andy