Amazing how much feeling this thread has provoked ! I think everyone should just relax, take a deep breath and lower the blood pressure...else you may end up failing your next class 1 medical........
So I get the drift that the general consensus from the Pro's (thanks to the almightly Bill Gates for pointing out the differnce between Pro's and Am's :-) is that they do not like these unpaid Am PPL Fi types. Seems to be two sides of the coin though, those who don't like 'em becasue they threaten their livelihood and those who don't like them because they believe that their instructing (or experience) abilities would not be as good.
Fair enough point about the instruction, if its not as good or the service to the student is not acceptable then I agree with you, though I would disagree with anyone saying a 1000 hr PPL's experience is not as good as a 300 hr CPL's.
Regarding threatening livelihood....would it be better for a PPL who wishes to instruct part time, and not give up everything, to go ahead and get the full CPL, and then still only instruct part time but draw a wage ? As was pointed out earlier its not that big a jump to go ahead and get it. Seems to me that this could work against the full time instructors, after all another body drawing a wage has got to impact on a clubs profit, maybe it'd be more convienient for the club to employ part timers? This whole arguement essentially boils down to Full time / Part time...Someone mentioned COMMITMENT earlier. It is possible to commit to more than one thing at a time...
I was taught to fly by a 'part time' CPL CFI who was also studying at University to get his Aeronautical degree, and all he was doing was hour building, while providing himself with enough dosh to live on. He was a damn good instructor too.
Here's a solution which I think may satisfy everyone......
1) Clubs limited on the number of UNPAID PPL FIs compared to the number of paid CPL instructors (ie. 10%)
2) Raise PPL FI minimum hours to 500 PIC (or whatever)
If you're then still worried about a part time instructors abilities, limit them to simple maneuvers, like initial flights, circuits, basic aircraft handling etc.....
Ok, I promise that'll be my last post on this subject (unless someone prokes me!).
Happy flying.............