Abstract: A pilot burner assembly for a combustion chamber in a gas turbine engine includes a pilot burner and a radial swirler. On a burner head face of the pilot burner, pilot fuel injection holes are present for providing pilot fuel. The swirler has swirler vanes arranged circumferentially and radially disposed around the burner head face with respect to a center of the burner head face. The swirler vanes have radially inner thin ends that define a burner region. Each pilot fuel injection hole is positioned such that a distance of the hole is equal to or less than 50 percent of a distance of an edge of the burner region, both distances measured from the center of the burner head face along a straight line from the center passing through the hole to the edge of the burner region.