Hi ReadyForTakeOff,

I think you will find aviation to be a wonderful community to be a part of. Wherever you go, there are always people that share this passion.

How can I get started?
The best way to get started is to take a discovery flight. It is a short flight around Louisville that will give you a good taste of what flying is all about. Most flight schools (but not all) offer a discovery flight option.

What resources are out there to help me find a good flight instructor?
Try these websites flighttraining.aopa.org and www.pilotjourney.com. They are a good resource to find flight instructors but not all instructors place their names on these lists. There are a couple questions that you should ask to any prospective "employee" instructor.

1. How many student pilots have you trained and what is your pass fail rate? Anything less than an 80% pass rate is not good and I would find a different instructor.
2. What is the average number of hours it takes your students to earn their private pilots license? The national average is between 60-80 hours. Anything above that and the instructor may be milking the pot.
3. What are your future goals and ow long are you planning on staying at this flight school? Unfortunately, some CFI's are teaching only to build time to get to the airlines. These instructors usually don't provide top quality instruction. This is not always true though. Your training will go quicker and cost less money if you can stay with the same instructor all the way through.
4. Have the instructor inspect the airplane with you? Do you find equipment in the airplane that is marked "inoperative". Is the airplane clean on the inside and on the outside. Are there anything obviously missing from the airplane. All of these signs can be an indicator that maintenance is not as important to the school as it should be. Unlike a car, we can't just pull off the side of the road when the engine decides to quit. We are trained to deal with that scenario though.

What training material should I pick up in order to start learning? AOPA has a lot of resources in the link above. The other place is on the FAA website. It has a collection of freely downloaded books that will cover everything you want to know about aviation. I would read first the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and the Airplane Flying Handbook. Another good book called the Student Pilot Handbook has good information covering your question as well.