On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 06:12:02 -0800, waltconnelly wrote:

Believe me KG, this IS the edited, redacted, thoughtful post and we are
BOTH wrong. Rich was an AVIATOR. Navy doesn't have PILOTS, they have
AVIATORS. Or so I am told.

Makes sense: on both salt and fresh water 'pilots' are the people who
guide ships into and out of harbour and through tricky stretches of
shallow water. So it makes sense that US naval plane drivers[*] are
called 'aviators' to avoid confusing two rather different skill sets. I
have no idea how other navies name their plane drivers.

* I've used 'plane driver' as a short descriptive term for what the
person controlling an aircraft does: this is not intended to be flippant
or derogatory.


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Martin | martin at
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