1. I have a competent, patient, and otherwise very good CFI. However,
he can never be on time, and as a busy professional, and despite many
discussions, I cannot live with this.

Can't say that I blame you. Mine was late on my second lesson, and I
thought I would have to fire him. But he worked out great after that. In
your position, I would probably work out something along the lines of
telling him that if he is more than X minutes late, then he forfeits his fee
that day. If he won't fly with you under those conditions, fire him.


2. GA seems economically distressed.

That's only because GA is economically distressed. Aviation, both general
and commercial, is chock-filled with people who have simply no business
being in business. From Stephen Wolf, ex-CEO of any number of distressed
airlines. down to the A&P I know who literally screams at his customers over
the telephone when they are so rude as to call him to schedule their annual,
to the people who you can only figure must be selling drugs on the side
because they have no visible other means of supporting themselves.

Despite all this, aviation continues to (just barely) survive. Provided
that it isn't legistlated or regulated out of existence, my suspicion is
that there will be GA for some time to come. Most of the businesses you see
will fail in the next five years or so, but other idealistic people will
take their place, and will then slowly go bankrupt themselves.

Even scheduling 2 to 3 times a week, maybe only 50% of my
lessons could go forward, and even those sometimes were marginal
conditions. I am disappointed that this is not more practical.

It's not practical. That's disappointing, I agree. But lifting nearly a
ton of weight up in the air costs money -- far more money than moving an SUV
5 times heavier along the ground at highway speeds. You cannot expect a PP
rating to be the key to any real utility. It's fun, and it's cool, but you
cannot count on using it to fly to that business meeting across the state
next Tuesday. Too many things can get in the way of any flight. An
instrument rating would go a long way to making more flights do-able, but it
cannot prevent icing or thunderstorms or mechanical problems or any number
of other things that will force you to drive across the state instead and be
late for your big meeting.

GA flying is GA flying, nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes it works
out. Sometimes it is very useful. And other times it is frustrating,
disappointing, and exceedingly unhelpful.