pilot fish: see pompano.

pilot balloon: see weather balloon.

pilot, person responsible for safe navigation of a ship or airplane. A ship's pilot is an individual possessing local knowledge of coastal waters. Usually licensed by public authority (in the United States, by the U.S. Coast Guard), he is taken on board to conduct a ship to or from port. The airplane pilot, in contrast to the ship's pilot, has overall command of the craft, which is operated, generally, with the assistance of a copilot. Before an airplane pilot can be licensed in the United States, he must clock a prescribed amount of solo flying experience and pass a series of tests given by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

automatic pilot: see air navigation.

Any of one to three species (genus Globicephala, family Delphinidae) of toothed whale found in all oceans except the Arctic and Antarctic, also called caa'ing whale for a roaring sound it makes when stranded. It is black, usually with a lighter splash on the throat and chest, and has a round, bulging forehead, a short beaklike snout, and slender, pointed flippers, and grows to 13–20 ft (4–6 m) long. Pilot whales live in large schools, sometimes hundreds or thousands, feeding mainly on squid. They have been kept in oceanariums and trained to perform.

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Widely distributed species (Naucrates ductor, family Carangidae) of carnivorous fish that inhabits warm and tropical open seas. It is slender and has a forked tail, a lengthwise keel on each side of the tail base, and a few small spines in front of the dorsal and anal fins. It may grow to 2 ft (60 cm) but is usually about 14 in. (35 cm) long. Five to seven distinctive vertical dark bands mark the bluish body. Pilot fishes follow sharks and ships, apparently to feed on parasites and leftover scraps. It was formerly thought that they were leading, or “piloting,” the larger fishes to food.

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