The phrase "a pilot in command" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used in aviation contexts to refer to the pilot who has the final authority and responsibility for the operation and safety of the flight.
Example: "The airline requires that a pilot in command must have at least 1,500 hours of flight experience."
Alternatives: "the captain" or "the pilot in charge".
"As far as the eye can see there will always be a pilot in command of an aircraft," says Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, the director of ASTRAEA.
This is done by having radio communications to and from the drone relayed via a "pilot in command", who would be a drone operator on the ground.
His logbook recorded 418 hours as a pilot in command - which classed him as "intermediate" by the Civil Aviation Authority - rather than the 450 hours required to be termed as "experienced".
He had held a C certificate since 4 January 1993, and had been a pilot in command since 20 January.
He had been a pilot in command for 3,441 hours prior to working for Widerøe, where he had been employed since 1990.
It wasn't much of a secret to investigators that the captain, 47-year-old Marvin Renslow, was not a pilot in command of his game from the moment the cockpit voice recorder was played and his motor-mouth monologue could be heard.
According to Sunjet Aviation records, the captain had accumulated a total of 4,280 hours of flight time (military and commercial) and had flown a total of 60 hours with Sunjet, 38 as a Learjet pilot-in-command and 22 as a Learjet second-in-command.
(ii) Age 40 or older an airline transport pilot certificate for pilot-in-command privileges, for second-in-command privileges in a flag or supplemental operation in part 121 requiring three or more pilots, or for a pilot flightcrew member in part 121 operations who has reached his or her 60th birthday.
(1) A first-class medical certificate (i) Under age 40 an airline transport pilot certificate for pilot-in-command privileges, or for second-in-command privileges in a flag or supplemental operation in part 121 requiring three or more pilots 12th month after the month of the date of examination shown on the medical certificate.
To fly as pilot-in-command under FARs Part 135 requires a minimum of 500 hours of flight time.
That was until the Enterprise broke up in mid-air, killing the co-pilot Michael Alsbury, but miraculously leaving the pilot-in-command, Peter Siebold, to fall 10 miles and survive.
