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Just a remainder: at the start of his presidency, Trump wanted to appoint his own personal pilot at the head of the FAA. So yes, don't expect too much from them

by nolok 7y ago

Just a remainder: at the start of his presidency, Trump wanted to appoint his own personal pilot at the head of the FAA. So yes, don't expect too much from them in cleaning the upper levels.

briandear 7y ago
Maybe appointing a pilot would be a good idea. Probably better than appointing someone who never flew an airplane. Obama’s appointee had zero aviation experience. He had transportation experience, but appointing a non-pilot to the head of the FAA is like appointing a non-doctor to be Surgeon General.
- V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago
  More important is to appoint someone with the right motivations and with a technical background. A pilot with a good formal technical background might be a fine FAA leader, but so might someone with technical expertise in the operations of the national airspace, or a Chief Engineer type involved with aircraft certification. What's critical though is that they remember they are supposed to work on behalf of the people, not the short-term economic interests of the regulated, and not to see themselves as firstly serving political patrons.
- nabla9 7y ago
  Trump's personal pilot nominee (John Dunkin) was not qualified. He was the man in charge of Trump's presidential campaign’s air fleet. There were multiple incidents. One of the pilots was convicted violent felon that had to be fired. The landings were constantly so horrible that press joked that nobody survives covering Mike Pence. It all ended with serious incident where one of the crews overshot the runway resulting shut down of Laguardia airport. Mike Pence was on board. I mean what it tells you about a man who can't even hire competent pilots in America.
  - dieselerator 7y ago
    > It all ended with serious incident where one of the crews overshot the runway resulting shut down of Laguardia airport. Mike Pence was on board. The aircraft you are referring to was chartered from Eastern Airlines (since acquired by a different airline) and flown by Eastern Airline pilots. [1] [1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_(2015)> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_(2015)>
    - nabla9 7y ago
      John Dunkin was responsible for the fleet, selecting airline that didn't train their pilots enough. He was responsible for decision to vet or not vet the pilots and their experience. > The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this incident to be: >The first officer's failure to attain the proper touchdown point and the flight crew's failure to call for a go-around, which resulted in the airplane landing more than halfway down the runway. Contributing to the incident were, the first officer's initiation of the landing flare at a relatively high altitude and his delay in reducing the throttles to idle, the captain's delay in manually deploying the speed brakes after touchdown, the captain's lack of command authority, and a lack of robust training provided by the operator to support the flight crew's decision-making concerning when to call for a go-around. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20161027X20715&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=IA https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?E...

by nolok 7y ago

Just a remainder: at the start of his presidency, Trump wanted to appoint his own personal pilot at the head of the FAA. So yes, don't expect too much from them in cleaning the upper levels.

briandear 7y ago

Maybe appointing a pilot would be a good idea. Probably better than appointing someone who never flew an airplane. Obama’s appointee had zero aviation experience. He had transportation experience, but appointing a non-pilot to the head of the FAA is like appointing a non-doctor to be Surgeon General.

V_Terranova_Jr 7y ago
More important is to appoint someone with the right motivations and with a technical background. A pilot with a good formal technical background might be a fine FAA leader, but so might someone with technical expertise in the operations of the national airspace, or a Chief Engineer type involved with aircraft certification. What's critical though is that they remember they are supposed to work on behalf of the people, not the short-term economic interests of the regulated, and not to see themselves as firstly serving political patrons.
nabla9 7y ago
Trump's personal pilot nominee (John Dunkin) was not qualified. He was the man in charge of Trump's presidential campaign’s air fleet. There were multiple incidents. One of the pilots was convicted violent felon that had to be fired. The landings were constantly so horrible that press joked that nobody survives covering Mike Pence. It all ended with serious incident where one of the crews overshot the runway resulting shut down of Laguardia airport. Mike Pence was on board. I mean what it tells you about a man who can't even hire competent pilots in America.
- dieselerator 7y ago
  > It all ended with serious incident where one of the crews overshot the runway resulting shut down of Laguardia airport. Mike Pence was on board. The aircraft you are referring to was chartered from Eastern Airlines (since acquired by a different airline) and flown by Eastern Airline pilots. [1] [1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_(2015)> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_(2015)>
  - nabla9 7y ago
    John Dunkin was responsible for the fleet, selecting airline that didn't train their pilots enough. He was responsible for decision to vet or not vet the pilots and their experience. > The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this incident to be: >The first officer's failure to attain the proper touchdown point and the flight crew's failure to call for a go-around, which resulted in the airplane landing more than halfway down the runway. Contributing to the incident were, the first officer's initiation of the landing flare at a relatively high altitude and his delay in reducing the throttles to idle, the captain's delay in manually deploying the speed brakes after touchdown, the captain's lack of command authority, and a lack of robust training provided by the operator to support the flight crew's decision-making concerning when to call for a go-around. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20161027X20715&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=IA https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?E...