Professional Development Centered Readings?

Boots2Wings said:
Was listening to a podcast the other day, and it mentioned something rather concerning...the vast majority of doctors read less than one “Medical Study” or Scholarly Article per month, which strongly contributes to poor performance especially in diagnostics.

This got me thinking, what resources out there are pilot using (or neglecting) that could contribute in some small way to bettering ourselves? I read my AOPA stuff, which to be fair seem to only discuss really elementary topics (ie. Wake Turbulence is bad...) and I just feel, outside of the occasional accident reports, I am not truly developing my knowledge or skills as a professional.

So what do you guys recommend? Anything that requires no membership fees are a plus, cause well, I'm an impoverished Freight Dog.

As always, thanks!
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Like @trafficinsight said, Tony Kern's work is all quite interesting. His latest bit on rogues is quite good.

Some of the more popular/less scholarly/not completely dweeby stuff on my shelves includes Stick and Rudder, Fate is the Hunter. I also have all three volumes of Barry Schiff's The Proficient Pilot. Would recommend. Should keep you busy at least initially. Beyond that, and if you want to get a little farther into the weeds and spend some more, Dismukes (et al.)'s The Limits of Expertise is illuminating. Broader, more cultural/management things include anything Siddney Dekker has ever written about human error and safety culture.

Airbus put out a thing on aircraft performance and it's quite fantastic. And you can get it for zero SkyPesos here. Their free safety pooper, nicely called Safety First, has some quite high-quality material concerning Airbus-specific things if you are so employed.

I guess it really depends on where your interest lies. I would say there's a dearth of professional development/continuing education things, beyond reading whatever ASAP poopers your company puts out (which are always fun to read). Don't neglect your local library either - impoverished or otherwise you're paying for it, so you might as well use it! :)
 
jrh said:
Something I've seen throughout my career, which seems to be getting worse in recent years (or maybe I'm a grouchy old man noticing it more) is pilots' lack of ambition to look stuff up.

For all those times when some question comes up about an aircraft system, reg, certification standard, or whatever, so many pilots are like, "I *think* it's this way..." or "During initial training I remember the training captain said..." And that's all the further the discussion goes.

Sometimes I'll fly with an SIC who says another captain sternly told them to do XYZ for whatever reason. Half the time it's some random technique that may or may not matter. I tell the SIC that, when faced with such a situation, politely ask where that's published. Is it company SOP? A limitation in the AFM? From the AIM? Is there an advisory circular talking about it? Because, "I think it's a good idea," isn't enough.

Along the same line, do what you can to keep advancing within your operation. Try to become a training captain, check airman, assistant chief pilot, safety officer, etc. Being in those roles will force you to dig into reference material and expand your knowledge base no matter if you want to or not.
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Wasn't there something that came out this year about mandatory leadership courses/classes for Part 121? I thought I read it . . .somewhere. Google search aint helping. I believe it came from numerous references in my email. Can't find it now.
 
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