What is your definition of a good pilot?

That which makes a pilot a "good pilot" or a "bad pilot" (or something
in between) falls in two categories - skill and judgement.

The skill side is self evident - a good pilot has mastered the controls
and responses of the aircraft to the point where it is an extension of
himself or herself, the bad pilot can barely keep the nose pointed in
the right direction. This can be a result of lack of experience, poor
training, or a number of other things but the result is that a bad pilot
can't control the airplane well.

The judgment side is more pertinent to the discussion we're having, and
I'd a "bad pilot" is one who routinely excercises poor judgement. While
this can come from inexperience, especially coupled with too much luck,
the primary culprit IMHO is attitude. The bad pilot is the one who has
the attitude that he (or she) knows it all. It is necessary to have
confidence in one's abilities (or one would never take to the sky!) but
the attitude that "everyone who disagrees with them is wrong" limits the
amount of careful consideration that is applied to flying. The bad
pilot =knows= they would never do something utterly stupid. The good
pilot realizes that it may well happen, and takes the steps needed to
prevent it from happening, and mitigating the results should he actually
=make= the stupid mistake that day. It is ingrained in the good pilot's
psyche.

The essence of "good pilot" "bad pilot" is "routinely". Every pilot
occasionally makes errors. The good pilot is less =likely= to, and is
more likely to realize soon enough that he has screwed up, and is more
likely to be able to recover.

But since nothing is guaranteed, a single unfortunate outcome of bad
piloting is not sufficient to identify a bad pilot. It is rather the
=pattern= of bad piloting, irrespective of outcome, that identifies one.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
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