Hello all, I am happy to be here! I have been reading as much as I can in this forum and have loved it all so far. I plan to start with ATP at the Denver location within the next year or year and a half. It would require me quitting my career in banking, selling my home in Idaho, and moving to the Denver area. It is all very overwhelming but I am slowly chipping away at my ‘to-do’ list. I am hoping to get my 1st class Med taken care of by March then moving onto financing. I am a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do personally before I reach out to admissions to secure a start date. I suppose the advice I am looking for is what can I do to get a jump on things before even talking to anyone in admissions? Any other forums/blogs/books you folks would recommend? I did look at some links posted in another feed about self study material etc. Thank you everyone!
You’ll need to take the faa knowledge test sooner than later. I’d download a free pdf of The Pilots Hamdbook of Aeronautical knowledge and get a jump on the basics. Get a cheap e6b, plotter Take some practice writtens
Madeline,
You don’t mention whether you’ve ever been up in a small plane, had an intro flight or a lesson? If you haven’t you need to. ATP won’t even take your money until you do. While many people believe they want to be pilots, until you’ve actually been upfront in the cockpit with your hands on the controls you don’t know for certain. If you have then there’s really nothing else. While there a tremendous amount of information available, most people find it to be very foreign out of context and without any flight training. We do recommend (though not required) that you take as many of the FAA Knowledge exams you can prior but these exams expire so I don’t recommend you start until you have set a date and know for certain you’re going. Further the training material will only be provided to you after you secure a date and pay your deposit.
Adam
Madeline,
Before you go selling houses, make sure that you are actually eligible for ATP. In other words, contact the admissions department and keep them in the loop on your plans.
As others have said, take the FAA written exams, but I would not do this until you have placed your deposit down as you will get access to study software once you have done so.
Chris
Thank you all!
I apologize, I have been up many times as my dad is a pilot and it’s something I have always wanted to pursue for myself. Adam you are correct, the information I have found is just that - foreign! Although, I am not worried about it all clicking together with the right instruction. John, I actually have a hard copy of that handbook on order 
Just waiting for it’s arrival! Chris, you definitely bring up a good point about making sure I am even eligible to attend ATP’s program. I wasn’t very clear in my first post, but that is for sure on my ‘to-do’ list.
Thanks again!
Edit: It is the FAR/AIM manual (2019 edition) I have on order.