I would be very interested to hear the opinion of flying club owners/operators regarding the hiring of PPL FI's, particularly during weekdays. It is not possible at a busy club to cram into the weekend and summer evenings everyone who wants fly.
When i instructed a couple of years back i used to teach full-time 3 weekdays plus sat & sunday, mostly to wannabees during the weekdays. At week ends we had a hoard of part-time Instructors teaching 'their own' students and we shared the trial lessons evenly - everybody happy, but then we were all being paid.
Very few people could afford to be available and motivated 5 days a week with no pay.
I ask of those who altruistically (from the comfort of their armchair)offer their services for nothing - will you be there offering a commercial service at a commercial establishment each week even when it's pissing down in January and you haven't flown for three weeks?
The quality of instruction must be directly related to experience and motivation. Experience means frequency and variety of flying for the instructor. Motivation is being a professional and working towards your own personal goals as well.
The acid test when assessing a fellow pilot is would you let your wife/child fly with them? I have to say that i would not let mine fly with a ppl full stop. I weep at the number of times when checking-out a PPL that they are unable to adequately perform an EFATO or PFL - i.e. they would have crashed(with my wife/child}. My own students were well versed with these but i cannot be certain that they fly regularly let alone practice general handling regularly.
The FI(A) course will not replace the knowledge aquired doing a Commercial GFT and then an FI(A).
The CAA know this and this is why the BCPL was introduced. It is commercial work and the paying customer has a right and the CAA a duty to strive for the highest standard.