.................you don't need to be licensed to be a pilot but you need to be a pilot to be licensed!
I see Harry Houdini is being celebrated next March (2010) right here in Vic (Diggers Rest) for being the first man to pilot a heavier than air craft here from Aussie soil (well I think he was but am willing to be corrected). Did he have a license? ..................nope but he had the "right stuff"
I;d say there are many 'pilot's out there in our outback that have had little to no formal flying training. It's not difficult to learn to fly the difficulty is to stay alive whilst doing it
Wmk2