I hired an instructor for some advance training a few years ago at $50 an hour. After the first flight we walked back to the hanger and gave to usual "good flight, keep your nose up" type bs then changed me for .3 of ground. I wasn't happy. Next flight he decided to engage in a ping pong match with another instructor and gave me the bs debrief again. He yelled over the the front desk to charge me .3 again. I was upset at this point. I was walking to the door and he yelled "hey when do you want to meet again"? I yelled back NEVER, I will find another CFI that cares.

Funny part was I had another one too, over a BFR. After we flew once he told me he want to do 10-12 hours of ground and 8-10 flights up to commercial standards. Pulled out a contract for me to sign. Said no thanks walked next door and did an hour of ground and 1 hour of flight. Got the signature I needed for 10th of the cost. I had an active CFI and 10 times the CFI time, and he wanted me to fly 10 flights for a BFR up to commercial standards.

Find a freelancer. 50 an hour is too much. 40 an hour is fair. Anything below that is a good deal. Find an older instructor that is seasoned that loves to teach and isn't a time builder. If you go to a school you will get milked no matter what. If you know of a school that doesn't do this i want to know who they are. ATP may be the only exception. I went through 2 CFI's for my instrument. 3 for my commercial. And 3 for my multi.

if you don't like your instructor fire them and find another. It cost way to much today to learn to fly. when I got my private in 99 I paid $15 for the instructor and $39 for the 152. if I paid for 10 hours up front the instructor rate was $10 a hour. Those $15 instructors were 10 times better then what I see today. I want to go fly for a 121 but the pay keeps me from going back. I'm home every day and make high regional money but i have a burning desire to say I did it. I'm thinking of doing it one year to get the bug out, then quit and go back into the 9-5 job.