Pilotage

Pilotage is the use of fixed visual reference on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and scuba diving. Pilotage techniques apply when close enough to land or other navigational reference points. In these circumstances there is often not enough time for more elaborate navigational techniques that are used when out of sight of both navigational aids and hazards. In these circumstances, it is usually not necessary to know exactly where you are, but that one is in a safe position, or at least on a safe line and will remain so for a period of time, and to know when the next change will be required.

Without such pilotage references, it is necessary to navigate using dead reckoning (typically with a compass and some form of log for speed or distance estimation), radar, radio navigation, and satellite navigation (such as GPS).

Pilot (aeronautics)

An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who actively and directly operates the directional flight controls of an aircraft while it is in flight. While other members of a flight crew such as flight engineer, navigator, or any other person involved in the direct flight operations of an aircraft (whether it be a fixed wing airplane, rotary-wing, powered, or unpowered), are also considered "aviators", they are not pilots and do not command a flight or aircraft. Aircrew who are not involved in operating the aircraft's flight systems (such as cabin attendants and mechanics) as well as ground crew are not generally classified as aviators.

In recognition of the pilots' qualifications and responsibilities, most militaries and many airlines worldwide award aviator badges to their pilots, as well as other air crews. This includes naval aviators.

History

The first recorded use of the term aviator (aviateur in French) was in 1887, as a variation of "aviation", from the Latin avis (meaning bird), coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne ("Aviation or Air Navigation"). The term aviatrix (aviatrice in French), now archaic, was formerly used for a female aviator. These terms were used more in the early days of aviation, when airplanes were extremely rare, and connoted bravery and adventure. For example, a 1905 reference work described the Wright brothers' first airplane: "The weight, including the body of the aviator, is a little more than 700 pounds".

Stephen Morris (novel)

Stephen Morris and Pilotage are two short novels by Nevile Shute; the first novels he wrote after writing poetry and short stories. Stephen Morris was finished in 1923 while Shute was working at Stag Lane for de Havilland, and Pilotage was written in 1924. Unpublished during his lifetime, but published by his estate in one volume as many of the characters are common to both novels. They are set in the budding (but nascent) post-war aviation industry in Britain, and also on yachts (Pilotage).

Stephen Morris

Stephen Morris studies mathematics at Oxford, but when he finishes the unusually good job in rubber in Malaya he expects has fallen through as business is bad and the firm cannot afford him. He sees no prospect of marrying now or in the future and sets fellow student Helen Riley free of any promise to him instead of carrying through with his letter proposing marriage. He gets a low paid (but back in aviation) job as a pilot cum mechanic in the Isle of Wight Aviation Company with her cousin Malcolm Riley and his partner Stenning. The firm fails after the wartime ministry hangar they are occupying is taken back, and he goes (initially on trial, unpaid) to Captain Rawdon’s Rawdon Aircraft Co. He becomes head, for a while the only staff, of the technical department; he studies aeronautical engineering and publishes a paper on fuselages. He turns down an offer from an armament firm Pilling-Henries and gets a new screw or rise when Rawdon gets an order for their new two-seater fighter – from Denmark, not from the Air Ministry: we must hope the government won’t risk a war with Denmark.