FOI: learning is "active." That means you have to actually teach in order to learn be a good teacher. One huge advantage that places like AF and FlightSafety have over the FBO is that they make you teach all the time, and they put you in a classroom where you have ready colleagues who teach you, and whom you teach. You learn as much by watching their mistakes as you do from making your own.

The problem with AF is that they lean too heavily on that "seminar" concept, and don't give as much individually managed ground instruction and feedback as would be optimal.

Still, you can survive without extra feedback and handholding; but you can't learn to teach without teaching.

Overall, AF offers a very good venue for the motivated student. The lead ground instructor at AF Pompano is extremely knowledgeable, very opinionated, has tons of experience, has thought through the maneuvers until he can fly them with a set of feathers, and is fanatically devoted to producing a better grade of flight instructors (in fact, a better grade than the aviation world is willing to pay a fair price for). He can also be hilarious. Their senior flight instructors can fly rings around you.

AF has to compete with other schools that are promising the moon and the stars; so they do just a bit of bait-n-switch, but they don't really break any promises. It's a good product. Just be aware it will take up to 50% longer and cost up to 50% more than advertised.