DX Wombat,
I've gone through that thread, and to be honest I can't see what all the fuss is about. There's more than one way to skin a cat...or plan a route. I was taught to put in 10 degree drift lines and I've always intensely loathed them; they get in the way of visual features on the chart and they used to drive me crazy. Who in the world can't estimate 10 degrees for gawd's sake; I certainly can and I always could. But I can't see a feature hidden under an unnecessary line on a chart. As soon as I had my PPL I put in as little as possible on the chart, using the Plog for almost everything, so that I could actually see the features on the chart! So I give my students a choice of which way they do it. What's wrong with that? People are different, and learn things differently, and instructors should maybe learn to respect that.
Starting somewhere other than overhead the airfield is normal and common if you have a sensible starting point close to the airfield; it saves this orbiting till you get to 2000 ft that so many people do.
His chart and plog are a mess, but mine are like that too - I've never been naturally neat. Looking at it carefully, it seems to have a lot of useful things marked, and I'm sure he knew what he was doing....and that's what counts.
I've suffered from instructors who insist on having things done Their Way and no other. I've seen people who can prepare beautiful charts and then get lost, and others whose preparation looks a mess, but who get where they're going. Whose navigation is best, do you think?
Anyway, none of us were there, and I think far too many people are jumping to far too many conclusions on very little knowledge.