This is an old article from Avweb profiling Rod Machado. I thought some might be interested in it. (Gotta wonder about his judgment though. The CFI keeps say Rod wouldn't have sent me for my checkride if he didn't think I was ready and I haven't passed it yet! ;(http://64.39.20.32/articles/profiles/rmachado/

haha. I am not about to step on toes of people who make livings with aviation. Or people with full page ads. But...and this is only me, and no offense to the highly qualified and well trained people, nor the dedicated instructors. (you couldn't GIVE me your job) At one time, I the unwilling was led by the uncaring, to do the impossible with nothing. I couldn't tell you if he could fly or not, I never saw him in the pilot seat and he was a marine seargent at that. "It's on my map, we can get there." But, he knew how to stay live in an aircraft with a dunce hippy at the controls. He did not have critera such as "almost" or "next time"..."this time now" or he took it as a personal reflection on his ability to teach. It nearly killed us both, but I owe my life to him several times over. Again, no offense to any instructor..I just wanted to share that.