It's a bit far to drive from Montgomery, but Jim McLeod in Pell City was my SP CFI, and a darned good one (he managed to make a safe pilot outta the likes of me!).
As far as the "only one side of aviation" line of thought goes, there's also the "why pay for a seven course meal when all one wants is lunch?" After all, I have a driver's license with a motorcycle endorsement - am I really missing out because I don't have a CDL and can't handle an eighteen-wheeler?
Saying one wouldn't drive at all if they couldn't take a Peterbuilt pulling two bulldozers on a lowboy through the rockies in a blizzard is just as silly as "I wouldn't fly if I couldn't pilot a complex aircraft."
Like everything, it boils down to goals and mission parameters. For myself, that meant simple, light aircraft under obvious VFR conditions for fun. I could pass a physical without a hitch, but when I crunched the numbers for a SPL against a PPL it didn't add up.
Do I really need to go under the hood or fly at night when my certified plane of choice is a Champ and the plane I'm building is a single seat daytime VFR 7/8 scale Nieuport 11 biplane? Considering the cost difference between the two licenses is half (or double, depending on point of view) - and, oddly enough, almost matching the price of my engine - it didn't make sense.
And I'm not restricted by the SPL in the least, considering the aircraft I fly. A "every certification" pilot is going to be just as grounded by weather in a Champ as is a Sport Pilot with a just a tailwheel endorsement. Plus no amount of training is going to excuse flying a VFR aircraft into IMC; let's throw that specious argument into the trash, where it belongs.
The world of stick-and-rudder flying is wide open for Sport Pilots; I'm doing upset training today for my BFR, and next year am going to do the basic aerobatic course (no, I don't want to compete - it's for the precision and other skills one gains from it that matters to me). I've already done spin training for the same reason.
That said, it's comes back to goals and mission parameters. If I were looking at aviation as a transportation option I'd go PPL; it opens up aircraft more suited for it than Champs, Cubs, or gold-plated composite techno-wonders.
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Btw, Sport Pilots can do aerobatics flying solo legally - if the aircraft is rated for it. Don't know why this myth is out there, but Sport Pilots can even compete in the USA.
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