CFI/CFII/MEI and former 135 cargo rat on frequency...
Many good points made above. I will definitely say "shop around". One of my big pet peeves is flight schools who either state or strongly imply (through their pricing quotes) that you can have your Private Pilot certificate in 40 hours. This is sometimes true but most often not. National average when I was teaching was in the 65-ish hour range done under part 61 (general flight schools with flexible/open/student-tailored programs), slightly less under part 141 (academy-type schools with FAA-approved syllabi that are followed to the letter).
Definitely do meet with the guy who will be YOUR personal CFI - not a sales guy. You are making a considerable investment of your time and money and will be spending a fair amount of close-quarters time with this person. Personality clashes will inevitably happen, but if you can find someone you're comfortable with and who your personality meshes well with, such conflicts will be minimized and you'll be able to make the most of your seat time and focus on the training content.
SCHEDULE 2-3 times a week minimum. Plan on losing at least 1 scheduled lesson a week due to weather, mechanical issues, plane unavailability or whatever. Those blocks of time should be used for ground instruction and to bring your questions to your instructor so the time isn't wasted and you get something out of it when you're already mentally in the frame of mind to learn/talk shop.
The advice about a smaller airport is very good. I did most of my instruction out of KSMO and while it is an excellent venue to prepare SoCal pilots for the busy/complex airspace environment of that particular area of the world, most places aren't like that and there's no need to be tying up $100+ an hour Hobbs time on the ground waiting for the six guys in the pattern to get it on the ground so you can depart. Smaller, less busy airports do have their advantages, but insist that you get plenty of exposure to towered airport operations and radio time with both Flight Service and Approach (VFR flight following) so you're comfortable with operations at busier/controlled environments - INCLUDING GROUND OPERATIONS! I used to take students down to KLGB and have them taxi around that confusing mess of an airport so they got used to looking at a ground layout chart, asking for help if they needed it, reading back hold short clearances, etc. I don't want my students involved in any incursions and you sure as hell don't want to be involved in any either - make sure you're diligent on the ground just as much (more so) than in the air - towered and non-towered airports alike.
Learn/focus on the basics. Many new VFR airplanes have all kinds of fancy-schmancy glass cockpit displays and GPS navigation systems and other bells and whistles. Don't waste your time on them in your primary training. Learn to "fly the numbers" - airspeeds, power settings, etc. Learn visual references and don't try to become an Instrument Rated pilot - that will come in time if you want it. You can learn about the fancy GPS stuff after you have your ticket with a few hours of post-PPL dual instruction.
As said above, don't tolerate an instructor who either treats you as "incidental" to his/her primary goal of getting hired with a regional or who verbally/mentally abuses you. There are MANY motivational tools available to an instructor to get a student to understand something; yelling/losing ones cool is a big red flag to me - and a sign of a lazy individual unwilling to analyze the problem and try a multitude of different approaches at helping the student to "get it".
Finally, get the FAA Practical Test Standards (available at any pilot shop or online) and understand what exactly you'll be expected to know/perform on the checkride. This will help alleviate anxiety. By the time you get there you'll have performed each maneuver to well better than standards, many times.
For the written prep I strongly recommend the Jeppesen hardcover book (about $80) and the Gleim test prep books (about $25). YMMV, different people get better results with videos, other publications, etc. There are about a zillion different sources of the same information out there - you'll end up finding at least one that works for you, but those have always yielded good results in my experience.
Finally, ENJOY IT! You should get to the end of each lesson happy, thrilled and (yes) a bit exhausted, but with a glow of satisfaction that comes from having mastered something that prior to the lesson, you couldn't do. If you're not, you are (or your instructor more likely is) doing something wrong. You should never walk away with a sense of "what a waste" or "that sucked". Even a bad incident like having to declare an emergency or make a forced landing should leave you with a sense of satisfaction because you did it correctly and well.
Good luck. Blue side up.
