PPRUNE FAN#1
I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that was not my intention. I do agree that the keyword of your quote is "privately". I was talking about pilots who, when you work with them, always want to hear that they are the best and no one else is better, no matter what you think.
For me, a good pilot is someone who knows his aircraft, does his pre-flight checks (I know enough pilots who don't do their checks!), and talks to the engineer if there's a problem (also from my own experience, that sometimes they won't tell you). But those same pilots walk around and tell everybody "how good they are". I don't think they are good.
I have met other pilots, who know their stuff, do all their checks and more. If they say they are good, I completely agree with them.
I just wanted to know what pilots think is important to be safe.
Regarding the joke, that was a reply to rotordk's comment. Sorry again for any offence. It defenitely was not meant for the majority of pilots (as the replies show).
Baseline: In my opinion, if you know your stuff and what you have to do to bring the bird back in one piece, I respect you as a professional pilot and I have no problem in telling everybody that. But when a pilot does not how his aircraft systems work or the limitations of his aircraft he better study some more and keep quiet.