I have a question for those of you in the know.

I want to make sure I am basically getting a decent deal and not getting caught up spending money on things I don't really need.

Here are a few of my concerns.

My flight instructor is a gleim dealer and is really pushing this 200 dollar ground package, do I really need to spend that much on this stuff to take the airman test before I even start taking lessons? I mean it comes with a hat, seriously?

Also and I have never heard of this so please let me know if this is standard procedure or not. My instructor sells his time in blocks but basically he told me that for every hour I fly I will be paying him for 2 hours of instruction at 35 an hour. so on this 20 hours of minimum instruction that I need I will be paying for 40 hours of instruction after he has already sold me the 200 dollar package and I pass the ground school before I even show up for my first flight.

Now please don't get me wrong, if this is an industry standard or just the way its done I dont mind at all but if this is just an instructor with creative billing techniques I'm thinking I might want to continue shopping around a little.

This sounds a little shady to me since I am expected to spend 200 on the gliem package and have the ground school out of the way before I even start flying.