CBD is a business gossip column, written in a colloquial style. One suspects the 'chief pilot' moniker has been applied by the author of the column, not GD himself, in much the same way as CEOs of various banks have been described in the column as 'chief teller' and managing partners of accounting firms as 'chief bean-counter' in the past.
I'm not a GD supporter, but in this instance I think he's done nothing viz-a-vis his title and this is a non-story. In any case he can't call himself a 'pilot' without the necessary licence.