Get yourself a log book so you can put that first trial flight in there!
Make sure that your school assigns you a single instructor. If you find yourself zipping between instructors your rate of progress will be impacted due to the discontinuity.
The same applies to the frequency of flying. If you only do, say one a month or once every couple of months you might find progress to be frustratingly slow as you spend most of your lesson re-learning what you did the lesson before. So if you can, do your lessons frequently, or if you can't, try to do it in groups of lessons close together so at least you're not spending too much time going over stuff you've already done.
The only time I've felt remotely scared was when I did spin recovery. The instructor told me to shut my eyes, and start a steep turn. After a few seconds, he then told me to open my eyes and recover. Which is all very well except the Earth is approaching rather fast right in front of you.
I did the medical very early. I hardly ever go to the doctor, but you never know what's lurking. In the end I was in and out in an hour with a nice piece of paper issued there and then.
If you think it'll take some time before you're solo (you need a medical to go solo), for example perhaps you only think you can make lessons once a month or so, I'd not worry too much about taking a medical too soon as they expire, and duration is dependent on age.
I always ask the instructor questions. Tons of them. Far better to have something clear in your head first on the ground during your briefing than to waste time in the air in a cloud of confusion.
On odd occasions in the air I find the short-term workload to be too much for my old brain: the amount of new stuff to learn is a lot, and there is a recipe for everything that you need to know. Sometimes the recipe is quite complex. In these cases, the amount to remember at first is too daunting, and brain overload ensues. Admission that you are lost in a sea of emotional turmoil is not a sign of failure, that is what the instructor is sitting there for. None of the recipes are impossible to learn, it just takes practice.
One other thing, I have a fairly good FSX setup at home but overall I don't think it helped one jot before taking lessons, and in some way it made things worse because I spent too much time looking at instruments and not looking outside. The physical feeling and the visual reality in FSX simply aren't there. However, I found that FSX is of some use in reinforcing those recipes, particularly I found when doing circuits where there's quite a bit to remember.
Most of all enjoy!
Cheers, Howard
Last edited by Howard Long; 12th May 2013 at 06:14.