Hi Ya'll

I gave my deposite today to attend ATP (Long Island)!!!! Very excited. I look forward to the commencement of training. I will not be doing the fast track for now; I want to test the waters first with the self-paced Private program. Please offer any and all advice from what kind of headset I should invest in to the study tips that has work for you. I'm just very excited; I want to be a pilot already!!!! Thank you everyone. Just think back to when you were first about to begin your training.

Study for and pass your private pilot written as soon as possible. Lots of computer based materials available. Buy a good headset (I liked David Clark during my ga days, Bose are awesome, but pricey. Worth the money if you will fly round motors, but that's highly unlikely)
FAA has lots of material available online for free including FAR's, Aim, flight training manuals etc.
Get a good instructor. If the one you are using is not satisfactory get another one.

TOTALLY Agree. My instructor and I have been on teh same page from teh begining. Let him/her know what your goals are. They know you want to be a pilot but what types of long term goals are you looking at? What background do you have? These are just some of the stuff my instructor and I have discussed and it allows us to focus on certain areas and most of all HAVE FUN WITH IT.

That's the boat I'm in right now. Looking to finish my PPL first, then head to ATP for the rest.

For my training I got the David Clark H10-13.4s and they were really good. When I started instructing I upgraded to the Bose X then later the A20s and love them, but buy what you can afford. Its good to do the Private first and see how you like flying/ATP.

With the written, try not to memorize the answers only. I know of some people who have done that to get it out of the way, but I'd definitely recommend going through the questions and having an understanding of the answer and why it is correct. They give you a bunch of books when you sign up so look those over, especially the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and the Airplane Flying Handbook. I don't think they include it but I would recommend the Jeppesen Private Pilot handbook also. You can probably find used on on Ebay.

where did they open on LI? Republic?, Islip? West Hampton?

They're out of ISP at Sheltair only been there for maybe a year I think.

Get a good grasp of Vor 's ,functions and intercepting radials when that portion of training comes up . Many folks are weak in that area and it will cause future problems as you progress on with more advanced training .Do not become dependent on the magenta line . Too many newbies are becoming dependant on GPS technology which though important it can detract from piloting skills. With the increasing use of GPS people are losing the basics Good luck ..this is a very exciting time for you so have fun .

Remember .. Pursuing a goal should can be more satisfying than attaining the goal so enjoy yourself!

Hey jmathieu, could you tell me how the ATP Long Island facility is, how was your intro flight, the instructors?? I wanna go there when I finish college and I'm just curious. Thanks

ATP at ISP is really not busy at all, they only fly a few days a week. I have herd a lot of bad things about ATP, specifically the quality of instruction. (If students are guaranteed an instructor job, what does that say about the quality of your instructor?) I would find a better, busier school.