Hmmmm
Hi BEagle,
Be careful not to over generalise. I am an flying instructor and former airline pilot. I hold an ATPL/IR AND PPL EXAMINER authority - I do not consider myself to have "meagre" flying skills and experience. I take flying instruction seriously and do my best to deliver a good service.
To some extent I agree with you. I do know some instructors with a 200 hour CPL/IR and frankly, some of them don't know one end of the aeroplane from the other! Clearly they are only instructing to stay current - they have no real interest in teaching people to fly - therein lies the problem.
A possible way of addressing this issue is to make people wishing to be instructors seek approval first possibly from someone in authority like a CFI. They should then have a formal interview with the CAA. Obviously, this would not clear out all of the time wasting hours builders but it might help.
I think your prediction of a few FI's earing £100k a year is somewhat of an exaggeration.
If we had a government that knew what they were doing rules would be in place to restrict (or even better prevent) the amount of JAA (or CAA) training done abroad, particularly in the US. The yanks have massive advantages over us in terms of operating costs as I'm sure you are aware.
Regards,