Read:
"Fate is the Hunter" By Ernest K Gann along with all his other books. Do not watch the movie which is BS from start to finish.
Stranger to the Ground - by Richard Bach the same guy who wrote JLSeagull
Chicken Hawk by Robert Mason flying Hueys in Vietnam.
Then read them one more time.
I also recommend anything ever written by Nevil Shute (SP) especially "Landfall, Pastoral and the best of the best "Rainbow and the Rose" - Slide Rule" are especially interesting to the pilot.
I was always told the you had to have philosophy (SP) of flying not just blindly follow a checklist to your bloody end. LOL
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