Private Pilot

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Your private pilot certificate lets you fly and rent aircraft in the national air system without any restrictions. 

You will need your FAA medical before you can solo the ACFT. I recommend getting your medical before you start your training. Here is the FAA Medical Website to help get your medical. I recommend finding an Airmen Medical Examiner (AME), then only scheduling a "Yearly Checkup" with them. Take in your medicine list and brief medical history and have them go over it. If needed, they will recommend having your primary care provider adjust or change your medicine to what is accepted by the FAA. Then you will need to schedule an FAA medical exam. It is another exam but if you need to adjust or switch medicine, it's well worth it.

To get your student cert, you need to make an IACRA account. I recommend setting that up with your CFI.

Documents Needed:

• Proof of Citizenship 
• Photo ID

Log at least 40 hrs of flight to include 20 hrs of instruction and 10 hrs of solo. 

FAA Handbooks are free digitally at FAA Website. My go-to aviation supply website is MyPilotStore.

• Airplane Flying Handbook
• Pilot Handbook of Aero Knowledge
• Jeppesen Private Pilot Training Syllabus
• Jeppesen Private Pilot Manual

After you have found where you will start your training. Here are some helpful tips. 

• Electronic navigation apps: ForeFlight, GarminPilot, iFly GPS. I use ForeFlight
•  For your logbook use a paper logbook and get a digital one. I use myflightbook.com (free),  other popular ones are ForeFlight logbook and LogTen.
• There are two cross-country definitions that are not known to student pilots. The main cross-county definition is for rating compliance of landing 50nm away from your starting point. That definition is the mostly known one. The other is the FAR 135 definition of cross country, which just means you have to land at a different airport and it doesn't matter the distance. This comes into play after your CFI job. So, I would recommend landing at any other airport as much as you can while in training. 
• Make an account at 1800WXBrief.com
• Make a FAA Wings account
• Use Airspace Triangle

Apps I like:

• Far/Aim
• Windy
• FlightAware
• MyFlightBook
• ForeFlight
• PlaneEnglish: ARSim

There are two main online ground school providers. Sportys and Kings Schools. I highly recommend Sportys. Once completed you will get a certificate to take your written test.

You will have a written test that you need to score 70% or better on. It's 60 questions with 3 options and have 2.5 hours to complete. The test itself is $175 and more than likely the testing center will have its own usage charge for proctoring. You will need to be signed off by either your instructor or complete an online ground school and get a completion certificate to take the test. To sign up for the test you need to make an account with PSI Testing and schedule the test a few days out. 

Here is a list of online practice test websites:

• Your purchased ground school provider
• PSI Website Free
• Dauntless Cost $

On the test day, you will do an Oral exam where the Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) will ask you questions to check your knowledge. Then you will go out and do the practical test and fly with the DPE.