Originally Posted by Douglas89

I am going to have my PPL checkride within the next 3 weeks. I have been training since May 15th. I can not tell you how exactly how much $$ I have spent, but when all said and done at least $13k. (including books, charts, checkride, written test, etc.)

I was flying typically 3-4 times per week. I was cranking out my hours but lost time once I had fulfilled all the par 141 hours for my PPL because I had not been keeping up with my written prep and was not ready to take it when I should have.

My suggestions to you are:

1. Like you mentioned get your 1st class medical ASAP. You want to know before you spend lots of $$$ if you have a medical condition that precludes you from being able to get a 1st class medical.

2. Buy the Dauntless Aviation PPL written exam preparation App. (I tried a lot of different study guides and this one by far had the best explanations. This will help with your practical but it will really help with your written test. I scored a 92% on my written.)
Make sure you are keeping up with your written test studying (This is not the same as normal ground school. While there is some overlap, this app will help you do well on the written)
Note: There may be other good prep apps/books/videos, but I have actual experience from this one and it REALLY helped me out.

3. Fly at least 2-3 times per week (working typically 50 hours week as a PM in Construction Management). Once per week in my opinion is not frequent enough to retain a fair amount of skill/knowledge between flight lessons. You could get your PPL only flying once per week, but it will take a lot longer than flying 2-3 times per week... and not just because you are logging hours quicker, but more so because you are not feeling so alien every time you get into the cockpit.
A few times during my training I had around 1.5 weeks of downtime between flights. I can tell you, when you are at such an entry level you lose a lot when extending periods of time between flying. I also think flying 5 days a week is probably too much and would be a point of diminishing returns.
I think 2-3 times per week is the sweet spot. When you are first learning to fly there is so much being thrown at you. This gives you more time to absorb information and actually retain it.

4. In addition to your Sporty's ground school, look at 8MA youtube channel. He is a CFI who is an ex-regional airline pilot. He has some great videos with excellent explanations. I found his explanations much better than a lot of what the Sporty's ground school and King's school had on particular topics.
There are so many youtube videos out there that you can pick up good information from.

5. Make index flash cards. I made some to prep for my checkride and I can tell you this helps ALOT. You can take them to work or places where it would be difficult to pull out large text books. You can spend 10-15 minutes going through flash cards each day and it has a big cumulative effect on your knowledge by the time you get to the end of your training.

6. Get very organized. Tab specific sections in your FAR/AIM, POH, Etc. I have a binder with the ACS (Airman Certification Standards), tabs in my POH, FAR/AIM, etc. It is very helpful. Also, it shows you are on top of your studying when you go do a prog. check with the chief flight instructor (assuming you are at a Part 141 school)

7. Learn how to plan cross country flights (once you get to this point in your training) with paper charts and navlogs. Paper charts are kind of a PITA, but you will learn the basics well from doing so. I fly the oldest/cheapest plane at my school. It does not have a GPS. I navigate visually/ VOR. My pilotage skills are sharper than a lot of the students who train in the R model 172's that have GPS. They rely too much on the GPS. Some people may or may not agree...

8. Once you have flown some and KNOW you are going to actually do this, invest in a good ANR (Active Noise Reduction) headset. I have the Bose A20. It makes hearing radio transmissions much easier and protects your hearing from damage. Piston engine airplanes are very loud. The bottom of the barrel, crappy headsets most flight schools lend out to students do not protect your hearing much. Prior to buying my A20's I used the school's headsets. When we landed and I turned the plane off and removed my headset, my ears would be ringing for many minutes after. You do not have to get Bose A20's (very $$$) but there are good options out there for cheaper ANR headsets.

9. I fly out of a class D airport. Start learning your phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Etc.) and learn the format for proper radio communications. I though this would be the most difficult thing about flying. It actually has been easier than I expected and am pretty good on the radios (for a PPL student). Being good on the radio will make you a lot less stressed when talking to control tower, ATC, or making calls at non-towered airports.

10. Try not to get frustrated. I was obsessed with trying to get done as quickly as possible but everyone learns at different speeds. Best thing for you is to learn good habits/fundamentals for flying so you are a safe pilot. You don't want to develop bad habits, as they will be hard to break later on. However at the same time, take your studying and flying seriously/professionally or you are just wasting your money.

Flying is not easy. Between the amount of knowledge you have to learn, to being able to perform maneuvers correctly. I am a gearhead grew up with motorcycles, cars, etc. and it has been way more difficult than I was expecting. Just keep all of this in mind. Stay humble.

Good luck!