Capital seen by pilot flying around Rhode Island (7)
I believe the answer is:
tripoli
'capital' is the definition.
(Tripoli is an example)
'pilot flying around rhode island' is the wordplay.
'flying' is an anagram indicator.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rhode island' becomes 'ri' (US postal abbreviation).
'pilot' is an anagram of 'tpoli'.
'tpoli' going around 'ri' is 'TRIPOLI'.
'seen by' is the link.
(Other definitions for tripoli that I've seen before include "Libyan port" , "Polish" , "powdery deposit" , "where there's been regime change" , "Libyan capital" .)