Hi, remember me? I'm "5487", the one who started this thread. All of the replies have been very interesting; some informative, some insightful, but also some just plain hateful.

I was surprised at how many took my joke of "arrogant licensed pilot" seriously. While there is no doubt that many licensed pilots are wrapped up in their own holiness (those of us in the aviation industry call them "Delta Captains") most are just plain 'ol Joes just like the rest of you on RCU. Nonetheless, considering how many folks took the "arrogance" ball and ran with it, that tells me how many are already spring loaded to dislike licensed pilots. Thankfully, those seem to be a small percentage as most of you responded to my original question with very good comments. Thanks!

I was also surprised about the RC pilots who felt that their RC experience enabled them to instantly become great Cessna pilots the first time out. That's great and I suspect that there's a lot of probability there. But let me point out the one big difference in learning to fly RC models vs. big airplanes: When learning to fly RC, everyone expects to break some airplanes at first. However, when learning to fly Cessnas, even a scratch is unacceptable, much less bringing home the plane in a big garbage sack!

Me? I've got over 5,000 hours and over 10,000 landings and have yet to even ding a prop. Wish I could say the same for my RC skills! :-)