Bingo... and sometimes the flight school owners are behind this policy... they care more about their planes flying than proper education of pilots.

Jarhead:

I would be careful about the looking for "older" CFI's thing. Yes there is much to be said about experience, but some of these guys are even worse the experience that prompted this thread. Some of tehse older guys will make you still call flight service to file flight plans because FltPlan.com is too new fangled... so you better dig up your old whizwheel e6b and your weight and balance sheets...

In addition to that, make sure these guys do more than just renew their ticket every two years... Aviation is constantly changing and some of these guys are dead set that the way they learned 30 years ago is the only way.

I really do not see what this CFI was asking you to do as unnecessary or overly complex. It seems he simply was asking you to calculate a W & B from scratch using the POH and you got all bent out of shape about this? Didn't you calculate one of these prior to the flight anyways? Why not take this as a learning lesson, and create your own WB sheet using the example from the AFM or POH? Then make it a habit of taking the 5 minutes to plug in the numbers when renting the 172. I'm assuming that you had to show proficiency with this when you got your PPL, so instead of placing blame on the younger CFI, take some ownership of your skills and realize that you need to sharpen up a bit. If anything this CFI is doing you a favor, he may be preventing you a headache in the event you get a ramp check.