The title is a bit misleading. The author mentions in passing that he took an at-home ground school course and passed the FAA written exam before flying. Studyi

The title is a bit misleading. The author mentions in passing that he took an at-home ground school course and passed the FAA written exam before flying. Studying to pass that test, and studying to retain some knowledge that can be useful when actually flying, can take more than a week itself. The other major omission is learning to fly in or through heavily controlled airspace. There are a lot of rules and procedures, especially radio procedures, to learn and practice, and they really need to be practiced with an instructor to get some of them to stick. An instructor can teach to you to communicate effectively with air-traffic control in ways that home-study courses won't. Expecting to learn that in a week and retain it is nuts.