â The annual fee on our credit card was high enough to cause some serious concern among my partner and I over whether we needed to close that credit card or not.
pilotage. n. 1. (Navigation) the act of piloting an aircraft or ship. 2. (Navigation) a pilot's fee.
A pilot experiment/study is often used to test the design of the full-scale experiment which then can be adjusted. It is a potentially valuable insight and should anything be missing in the pilot study it can be added to the full-scale (and more expensive) experiment to improve the chances of a clear outcome.