As a former Marine, I challenge you to ask your friend how many YEARS it was to get that 200 hours. Hint, more than one less than 3. The military is miles more advanced and thorough than civil training.

Exactly. It's the only way to train IMO. And the most efficient.

So what you're saying is that working on a concentrated course will not prepare me to be a CFI vs. a guy who took 6 months working on it on the weekends at their home?

Not at all, however, up until this time only you were responsible, now you will be answering for for someone else.:eek:

Exactly. And they will sue you, your family, anyone to get something out of it.
Spend some time talking to some instructors, or better yet some examiners and ask for some good advice.
You are taking on so much more than a rating here. This is for real, and its no time to be cutting short. You can do it in decent time, but speed should not be the focus. If you were going for heart surgery, would you want a doctor who learned well even if it took him a little longer, or would you want Doogie Howser who took "the fast track"?
I find it so ironic that those who really haven't learned to fly themselves are teaching others to learn to fly. I once had a big problem with that statement and it hurt my little feelings when I was a new CFI because I thought I knew so much. But now, decades later, with thousands of hours f dual given and 6 type ratings as a professional pilot, I understand.
Don't be pulled in to the rush. I know the sense of urgency is there, but the stakes are very high.

Take it from me, a CFI, CFII, MEI, ATP and 135 pilot: I am quite sure that any CFI at almost any flight school will custom-tailor a curriculum for you. Just tell them what you want to do. You don't have to go to an 'expensive flight certificate mill' to receive this kind of training. I used to teach at a 141 school, and we can get you a copy of that type of concentrated curriculum if you want it.

The main thing is doing training five or six days a week vs. only training on the weekend. How many days a week do you want to train?

In regards to pre-flight and post-flight briefings, just have your CFI cover a lot of information in a short period of time each day.

And if you want 'concentrated ground school', just have your CFI give you a lot of reading homework every night, or have him assign a lot of videos to watch. Have him quiz you thoroughly on every night's reading and videos the next day. Have him quiz you on the FAR/AIM, your POH, and military IFR manuals everyday. In addition, there is a LOT of info for a CFI to memorize (e.g., "define Law of Primacy"), so have him also quiz you on this daily.

And I second the sentiment above about getting in touch with an examiner early in your training. If your training includes stage checks, have your examiner give the stage checks.

Again, I don't get what people are getting at. Not a new pilot and certainly have more hours than many of the CFI's building time to go to a regional. I like focused training and can't believe that a focused curriculum is less effective and makes someone a less effective CFI than a young person with 1/4 my time doing it over months to get that CFI than fire off to train. My age, maturity and experience of owning my own planes has to count for something.

I learn best from a focused, daily working flying program.

I don't see why you can't do an accelerated approach. Especially if you have a lot of flying experience. It seems to me the difference in programs is not the "amount" of knowledge transferred to you the student/CFI candidate, nor the actual training time, but just the compressed nature of the training itself. Meaning that the non-learning, non-studying time is removed and all that you are left with is the training and studying (and eating and sleeping). Those programs usually require you to have taken and passed the written exams before you start so those are out of the way.

Seriously, I know someone who has almost 1,200 takeoffs and landings, and over 600 flying hours. And mostly taildraggers. By the time they go for their CFI it will be more than that. I would venture a guess that most young starting CFIs don't have anywhere even close to near those numbers.

Just because you are going for your CFI doesn't mean you need to drag it out necessarily.

One thing you do need to be aware of as a CFI, is that all students are trying to kill you. ;)

Do you have any statistically significant evidence that pilots who do accelerated training are worse pilots/cause more crashes/more negligent/deviated more? Or are you just basing your opinion off of a few anecdotes and personal experience?

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I would think the statistics favored accelerated training. You fly more often, retain the knowledge better, etc, etc, etc. I really don't understand the thinking against accelerated training. I think it's irrational.