Truthfully, I have not read all the way through this thread so some of this may have been covered but here are my thoughts on sticking with the same instructor vs. moving to a different shop.
Clearly, as has been pointed out on his board countles times, it's all about the instructor. Incidentally, I dispute the point about the standards slipping, that is really something of a red herring. Old timers always think the new whippersnappers are doing it all wrong. The fact is, equipment has changed and the industry has changed, so the training standards had to change. I could go on and on about that, but more specifically to your point --there were old instructors who sucked and there are current instructors who suck --and there are instructors in both groups that are great.
So, what to do? When I was learning to fly airplanes, I stuck with the same instructor for a long time, really liked the guy even though he was quirkly. I knew he knew his stuff, you know, I didn't want to fly with anyone else.
I took a little break during instruction because of a change in careers. When I went back, it was with a different instructor --great guy and I learned things from him that I hadn't from the first guy.
I started taking my flying gear with me when I traveled and booking lessons wherever I went, one or two each time. Lo and behold, I found out that I learned more by trying different teachers because not every teacher is good at everything. In the end, I believe I became a much better pilot than I otherwise would have been.
I applied the same philosophy to scuba and find utilizing different Instructors has helped me learn different techniques and styles, ultimately exposing me to much more than if I had stuck with the same person or couple of people all the way though.
So, while your OW instructor was clearly great, it may be a good idea to try someone else for AOW just so you are exposed to different ideas --and forget about the shop owner and his 'going to Hell in a handbasket' remarks.
Jeff
