I took their tour way back when, they flew me down there for free.
It was a different time for sure. Most fleets at the mom-n-pops (call it a category <25 airplanes) were leased like office furniture. One place would fold, the airplanes would fly to the next place. Some really, really big places evaporated over night.
Everyone used the standard Jepp shrinkwrap programs, which in seemed not to have changed since Jepp bought Sanderson. You didn't see "custom" or in-house programs until you got to the larger operators.
I worked at a mom-n-pop, and we got a couple new programs certified using our own materials, and whoo boy, was it a challenge. Most small places didn't have the resources or the people to put into a project like that unless you had a couple of motivated, sharp people who just happened to be there and who could interface with the Feds on a regular basis to get it done.
Definitely a colorful time in the business, but still probably doesn't compare to the wild west days of the 60s-70s.
No way those places could exist these days. The huge surplus fleet of airplanes is gone, and your only option is to get Cessna 172s at usurious prices. When big money like Flightsafety can't make a go of it, instead blaming it on accreditation because people need "student" loans not personal loans or out of pocket, then something is wrong in the industry, and it smells like tax harvesting & rental property. It's entered the doom cycle.
Zero to hero (CFI/II/MEI) back in the day was about $12k, but lets call it $15k because everyone flew extra. Toss in another $5k for room, board and bail money for when you tried to ride the beacon. $20k 1992 dollars is about $47k today. You can't get half done with your tickets for that today.
