Best traits for Pilot?

[Pattycake]

I'm just curious what traits people look for when looking for a pilot. I like starry eyed because of the morale boost while in space but what others do people like to have?

[Kiwiwrath]

for me its more about the negitive traits. ugly crier or vomiter so you dont get chaos when on and going to new planets

[goboking]

I role with Starry Eyed as well.

[Gurgel]

I want a digger and electrical engineer and/or suit-wearer. Piloting is easy, but that dupe will have to do early work on a colony, potentially including establishing cooling via steam-turbine (hence the EE). I also make sure they still have enough morale when only a great hall is available due to my colonization rocket being set up that way. Of course, if I can get dupes with two food morale increases and have berry sludge (ideally), that is even better. 

If I can, I send two dupes for a new colony. Stuff takes too long otherwise. For space research I use a different dupe that and later also do mining-operations.

The overall trick is, I think, to keep the pilots to the bare essential skills to keep morale requirements down. 

[Sasza22]

I like when they have the iron gut trait. It lets you save on space in the rocket beacause he doesn`t have to wash his hands. Divers lungs are nice as well.

Usually though i get a designated pilot and use a different dupe for colonization - send 2 one lands other brings the rocket back home. The colonist doesn`t have to be a pilot so he can have different traits like the lonesome one, digging and building is always priority for that one though so he can build a base for himeself in a reasonable time.

[babba]

In my colony everyone is a pilot, as everyone is trained in strength and carrying. Everyone is often running around in lead suits for most of the time. When a dupe is born I aim for strength and/or athlete, those which don't make it to somewhere in time, suffocate and are sorted out by Uncle Darwin.

To keep the morale somewhat up, I install 10 phones in to a rocket... So there is lots of happy phone calls and chatter going on in my rocket in off duty time, next to crying.

[LunaticLea]

IMHO the best advice is to not look for a pilot dupe in the first place,
instead look for a dupe that fits the role you need.

The pilot branch is (again, IMHO) the second weakest skill branch in the game
(the worst being the doctor branch), having only two levels (so not too great morale cost)
and very miniscule benefits per skill level (only what, 2% rocket speed per level?).
You also are forced to take the pilot first branch level for whatever reason to access the exosuit training branch
(which in turn is very useful with the penalty reductions and athletics bonuses), so you will pretty much always
have dupes around that are able to pilot rockets sooner or later.

Even with high piloting skill levels the saved travel time is usually neglegible.

As for the few cases where it does matter and you really need a dedicated pilot:
Grab a dupe with a high research level (e.g. 7-13) and a preference for it,
then train the dupe until the two research and piloting branches are maxed out,
then stuff them in a rocket (use carpet tiles and some deco for an easy +9-12 morale
as well as stress reduction) and let them fly until the end of time.

The research skill provides massive learning bonuses,
and the dupe will quite quickly level piloting up while flying as a result.

I personally made the mistake of getting a dedicated pilot with a +10 skill
and nothing else, then used my primary researcher (piloting level 1) for the first
asteroid mining trips (to gather data discs in addition to resources) who then
pretty much got a skill level for each trip, quickly reaching level 11...
...while the dedicated pilot who flew the mining trips later was stuck
on skill level 10 for ages...