Sounds a lot like the dufus who gets stopped on the road. " I am not driving, I am traveling. I am a sovereign citizen"
In the Army we called them chit house lawyers.
Treat people with respect as you want to be treated and the guy would have...
Or perhaps the better question is why did the pilot deliberately provoke the authorities, prompting them to seek his arrest in the first place? He certainly did himself no favors, even if he wasn't committing the crime of the century.