Originally Posted by
43Inches
There is a difference though, most places you are prohibited from using the Doctor/Dr title unless you are the holder of particular qualifications. The use of the title Captain has no such limitation, you can designate yourself as captain of your car if you so wish to be ridiculed. Even on the sea there is ongoing attempts to have the title officially for certain experience or size of vessel, but no law to regulate it, so while it would be uncool to say you are captain of your tinny, there's no law preventing it. However that being said, Airline Captain is a socially accepted term denoting what you do, and believe it or not people tend to respect the position (outside of PPRUNE that is).
In fairness if you get pulled up by the water rats in your tinny with the boys the first thing they ask is “who’s the skipper here gents?”