I am in a fortunate position. The business I own half of, is an aerial photography and mapping company. I am up in our Cessna 182T or 172 regularly. My business partner is a pilot, but he is often away flying another clients project. I end up hiring a pilot to fly me around. He is a certified pilot instructor. Since I am paying him already, and the airplane expenses are paid for by our customer, I can learn to fly for essentially no cost.
The pilot instructor I hire now likes the Jeppsen brand of books. I am likely going to buy them, BUT I figured I would ask the brain trust. I know many of you are pilots. Some do it for a living, some as a hobby.
Right now we are flying 5 to 6 hours a week but 10 hour weeks are not unheard of. The instructor does all the flying, and he is good at it. I just figure, why not learn how to do it. I don't want to put the instructor out of a gig, but I do want to be able to safely operate the aircraft if necessary.
So the question: What set of ground school books do you recommend, and why?
https://jeppdirect.jeppesen.com/product_details.jsp?id=prod912