I have to agree with BEagle, whilst I was an hours building FI and I know that many do give a good service, however now I know that the best instructors are usually a lot older and more experienced.
I would however, hate to see a return to unpaid instructors and frankly with my experience of PPL's, there are not that many who would fit into the experienced and dedicated mould that is really required.
Someone doing bits and pieces is not what's needed, there needs to be a new breed of professional instructors who do it as a career. They need to be paid decently and be available more than just once a week, like most PPL FI's would be.
If someone has a 9-5 job and especially a family, then the chances of getting any more than that out of them is impossible.
The only problem is, that no-one wants to pay for it.
Until that is forced upon people, then we will have this stupid bitsa system we have today, where good training is often more a game of chance than a given.
There are great FI's out there, but there are some real numb-nuts as well and there is no way a prospective student has an real way of seeing who's who. Until it's too late...........
Most schools are so concerned about simple survival that actually doing a good job and being customer focus just goes out of the window.
I actually want to see a bit of carnage in the industry, that way we might have some opportunities for some of the decent schools.