Pilot

"If a legitimate pilot turns up early, it's a minor inconvenience at most. If an illegal pilot turns up early—they're trying something."

- Senator Leia Organa

A pilot, sometimes called a starpilot or flyboy, directly controlled the operation of a vehicle while located within the same craft. For small starships the pilot might have been in charge of all aspects of the vehicle including navigation, sensors, communications and weapons. For larger ships, a pilot may have been assisted by other crew members to handle different ship systems. The term "pilot" applied across vehicles used on land or in water, air, and/or space.

Combat pilots would either need to move together or singly during starfighter combat. According to the Chiss Thrawn, pilots in a battle, like soldiers on a battlefield, saw victory differently from others in battle. Thrawn stated this was because to a pilot or soldier on the line, victory was surviving the battle they were currently involved in.