The distance between two steps of the pilot ladder is required to be between 31cms to 35 cms.

If we need to have the pilot ladder around 2 meters above the water level, that makes it around 6-7 steps of the pilot ladder.

While rigging the pilot ladder, we can lower it to the level where the first step just touches the water surface and then lift the pilot ladder by 6-7 steps. That would make the pilot ladder rigger 2 meters above the water level.

However, with practice, the crew members have a good sense of the distance and they do not even require to measure the distance and yet rig the pilot ladder very accurately.