"operational pilot" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to refer to a pilot who is currently actively working and flying planes, as opposed to a trainee or retired pilot. Example: "The airline was experiencing a shortage of operational pilots, causing delays and cancellations for many flights."
Flight Lieutenant Wales, as the Duke is known in the military, completed his first rescue as a fully operational pilot in October 2010, helping a man who fell seriously ill while working on a gas rig in Morecambe Bay.
After undergoing further training, he qualified as an operational pilot in 2012 and joined No 1 Squadron at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which flies F-16s.
But he was an outstanding personality, magnificent fighter and great operational pilot.
Perhaps the oldest operational pilot in the wartime RAAF, Pentland was responsible for rescuing airmen, soldiers and civilians, and earned the Air Force Cross for his "outstanding courage, initiative and skill".
Though he considered himself a "full-blown operational pilot", his experience in air-to-air gunnery was "practically nil", and he essentially learned the skills of being a fighter pilot as he went along.
In the early 2000s, like other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Burkina Faso launched a national program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Saint Camille Medical Centre in Ouagadougou was the first operational pilot site (4, 5).
On 1st May 1944 the RAF opened No12 (Operational) Flying Instructors School with the sole purpose of training ex operational pilots as instructors who would then go on to instruct basic trainee pilots.
I./JG 11 had only 16 Fw 190s on strength and only six fit and operational pilots.
On 31 December, JG 27 could only muster the following operational pilots and aircraft: 22 (22) from I., 19 (13) from II., 13 (15) from III., and 16 (17) from IV. Gruppe.
In 1940, Air Minister Power directed that a nation-wide voluntary organization be formed to sponsor and develop a select group of young men who would be trained to meet the increasing need for operational pilots in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during World War II.
Operational squadron pilots will have the thrill of discovering the remaining problems, in training or in combat.
