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I would define a professional pilot as one who:
a) Is for hire.
b) Does not fly for "free" when the job should be paid.
c) Maintains standards to those of Commercial or ATP certificate.
d) Is current and qualified in his aircraft.
e) Maintains integrity.
"e" has a lot of room for interpretation there
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I'd agree with that.
Guys that fly for free make it hard for us all.
When I was a CFI in California, there was another CFI who borrowed some cash from his parents, purchased a Cherokee 180 and started a one-man, one-aircraft flight school.
At first, he'd offer free flight instruction and a $20/hr rate for the aircraft and students flocked to this guys business. But the quality of the instruction was so poor and maintenance so lax that we'd end up getting a lot of his current and former students at our flight school.
More or less, XXX was taking a loss, just in order to build flight time quickly and really didn't care whether or not his students were prepared or not.
When we'd tell them that the C-152s were $41/hr and the C-172's were $59/hr with a $25/hr rate for an instructor, I've never heard "Waa waa waaa, XXX charges $20/hr for everything, why do you guys charge so much?"
$41 for a 152, $59 for a 172 and $25/hr for flight instruction were among the lowest prices in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995!
It got to the point where I stopped trying to defend our rates and tell the students, "If you think you're getting such a smoking deal, don't let me stand in the way!"
Turns out that XXX wasn't doing required maintenance on the aircraft, never passed a single student. He made enough flight time and borrowed some more money to pay for Twin Otter training in the Carribean for a "pay for training" outfit, but after his check cleared on the second day of ground school, the owner closed up shop, locked the doors and disappeared.