He is a lot closer the PPRuNe than you think........
Tail Wheel,
Not something I have thought about, at all, but some of the miserable comments on this thread reminded me of similar miserable sods making similar disparaging comments about Dickinson, without knowing his qualifications --- which I did, having met the bloke when he was flying a B757.
Re. my not nearly correct comments on JT licenses, so much for the stories current at the time Travolta was doing the -400 course.
I guess if I put up a story about John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham, long tine Chief Test Pilot of DeHavillands (think Comet and Trident) some miserable and narrow minded sod here would say: "He wasn't a real pilot, he only had a PPL".
Which was the only full civil license he ever had.
--- retired airline pilots still using the term "Captain" when they are no longer flying. Both are equally irrelevant.
The title, in the civil world, has no legal meaning, regardless of the size of the aircraft, it is merely an honorific, whether a person is currently flying or not, and a convention adopted by (not only) airlines.
Tootle pip!!