Popano Beach is a good school, great weather this time of year! Dallas, TX runs a close second. Of the 4 CFI academies I've seen over the past 4 months, we've gotten almost everyone through the CFI and CFII in 30 days. The other statistical anomalies were mostly due to the need for extra training or having to finish their commercial checkride. The California, Chicago and Ft. Worth schools are really short on instructors right now, especially 2yr instructors who can sign off CFI initials. If you're gonna go with AF, go to Popano or Dallas (Addison).

As far as the 10 day IFR goes, we usually tell people to book flights home on the 14th day in case stuff happens. I've seen 15 successful "10 day" IFR programs in the past 2 months.