FAA Nominee Quizzed On Aviation Knowledge - AVweb

News Discussion
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President Joe Biden's pick for FAA Administrator Phil Washington faced a turbulent Senate confirmation hearing that included a Q and A from fellow non-pilot and staunch opponent of his confirmation Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. In what seemed to be an attempt to expose Washington's lack of relevant experience for the job, Cruz asked Washington about the angle of attack sensors on a Boeing 737 MAX and what the correct response would be to disagreement between two sensors.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-nominee-quizzed-on-aviation-knowledge
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Inappropriate and utterly juvenile. What ever happened to “discretion”, that admirable quality that was part of our past generations? What is allowing us to drop to lower standards to civic decency every day? Where does the desperate need for attention that kids like this one have come from?

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Inappropriate, yes! On the other hand stuff like this happens because it gets attention. You would think the FAA and FlightAware would have thought about things like this happening, and would have taken some effort to screen for this before allowing it to be released to public. After all the FCC would have fined any TV station for broadcasting this. And I can think of a lot more juvenile and destructive trouble a bored teenager could get into. A little surprised that this is even a subject on this web site considering the political connotations involved. Should be an interesting job to moderate this thread.

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Perhaps borderline appropriate. Personally, I would have chosen different language, but he’s probably just expressing what many of us are thinking.

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The teenager could easily have used an acceptable word for his frustration. Too lazy or illiterate, or doesn’t care. What is clever or impressive about offensive disrespect? Nothing.

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Oh my, you commenters sure have tender “ears”. I think most people have heard or seen this word before. The FCC is already a needless nanny for television. It’s just a word folks.

I compliment the kid on the flying skill that is required to follow a complex flight path with such accuracy.

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Me, too, David. Looks like a lot of people who hang out here live in glass houses and haven’t heard of the First Amendment ?

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Agreed. And really, the past generations have done plenty of indiscretions themselves. At least this kid wasn’t doing hard drugs or rioting or draft-dodging. Actually, it shows patience and discipline to fly a precise enough flight path for 2 hours for it to be legible.

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Lighten up, Francis! Not like the kid was skywriting it (although he would have done an admirable job it appears…) and I applaud his creativity, flying prowess and patience to carve that out over two hours at a 100 knots!

And who says today’s youth has no future? Look forward to him doing it in a scramjet over the entire U.S. twenty years from now!

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Discretion of past generations? Oh my, we are wearing rose colored glasses aren’t we? For any past generation you want to name, we could go back and witness the parents of said generation shaking their heads and making the exact same statement that you just made about “the young whipper snappers” of that time. :slight_smile:

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FCC rules are a throwback, and so are puritan sensibilities about language. What’s acceptable/not-acceptable is both contextual and ever changing. The FCC sets rules for broadcast content, and guess what? It’s contextual. Some things deemed unacceptable during times when children might be watching suddenly become acceptable at other times. That aside, what this young man did will not be broadcast; the only way you can be offended by it is if you go looking for it. Why would you go looking for things to offend you?

Just a few decades ago the word “bloody” when used as an adverb in British English was considered incredibly offensive. Nowadays, no one bats an eye. Much the same thing is happening here in America when it comes to the “F” word. I suspect in a few short decades it will be just another adverb, used by schoolchildren everywhere.

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He needs to have his mouth washed out with avgas.

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Well put, Robert. I agree wholeheartedly.

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I seem to recall, not too long ago, a lot of commentors saying ‘what’s the big deal?’ about a couple of fighter jocks drawing a big penis in the sky. Just had to look up to see it. It wasn’t hidden behind the practical obscurity of having enough knowledge to bring up FlightAware, know and enter the right N-number, and then pull up the correct flight from the list.

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The kid ‘looks’ as if he’s clean cut and half intelligent. Leave him alone!

Keep giving up your liberties … won’t be long before you don’t have any !!

I’m old enough to remember a time in the early 60’s when someone came onto Jack Paar’s nightly show (before Johnny Carson) and said the word “toilet paper.” Paar threw him off the show. SO … by that standard, this kid oughta get the “chair.”

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Muwahh! Back in muh day, we didn’t have fancy aeroplanes to go lolly gaggin round the sky. Only thing we had was a bedsheet, and we’d jump off the roof of the house. We’d jump off the roof and break our legs and the other kids would stand there and laugh at you while you withered in pain…that’s the way it was and we liked it!

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It’s that durn rock-and-roll music!

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There are two ways to express one’s feelings. Some are appropriate, some are not. Since the “F” word is now part of the mainstream way of communicating just about anything…from feeling exceptionally good to feeling exceptionally bad, and is used pretty often in normal language exchanges describing one’s feelings regarding just about anything in between…as a society we seem to think the “F” word usage is now part of the new normal of expressive language.

So, WTF, chill, don’t get your "F"ing underwear in a bunch because some "F"ing teen “F” head used common everyday "F"ing language to express his "F"ing outrage for Covid-19 shortening his "F"ing school year. If this comment does not get deleted…does this way of expressing myself seem appropriate? A lot of people do talk this way.

Was it carefully chosen by the teen pilot because he has such a poor command of the English language? Is this how his parents and grandparents speak, therefore he knows no other way of expressing himself? That’s a distinct possibility. Let’s face it…the “F” word is mainstream expression today. But I don’t believe that’s the case. I think he knew exactly how to get on FB, YouTube, CNN, Fox News, and even Avweb…just like the fighter jocks did the penis skywriting spectacle.

Today,while deep down inside we know of many things that are inappropriate, we know the inappropriate is the fast track to 15 minutes of viral fame…further immortalized for future reference as a meme for FB that has enormous possibility of being used and re-used over and over in the future. So, like this teenage pilot with obvious, stick and rudder skills, combined with great situational awareness abilities with his demonstrated use of onboard navigation devices, will be immortalized as the FlightAware “F” Covid-19 flyer. Instead of of learning an appropriate way of demonstrating his prowess…he knew that would not get much attention…he went the route of graphic, dumbed down language not to show his piloting skills but to get a massive amount of attention. He succeeded in spades.

He knows the best way to get noticed is do something that is inappropriate, edgy, but mainstream enough to cause controversy but yet appeal to a large enough audience that will approve of this behavior. This way, he gets noticed, his flight goes viral, he is now famous because he specifically used the “F” word …and he will get a lot of support for his choice of words creating enough debate to keep him out of any sanctions or legal trouble. He knows he can hide behind the freedom of expression right…and go viral another over and over again as we debate that right to express ourselves any way we feel is appropriate.

Our new normal is use of the “F” word is appropriate enough for online, display because it it edgy enough to be inappropriate in most normal face to face conversations. It demonstrates “keyboard courage” that is seen on so much texting and on-line communications of just about everything. So, inappropriate for face to face communication is the new appropriate for anything outside of that. I find that so inappropriate.

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You folks are clutching the wrong strand of pearls.

In our new Bigger Brother airspace environment, I’m inclined to digitally skywrite “F— FlightAware & FAA” for making every trip, every diversion, and every stop visible to any moron with a modem. It was one thing when you had to have a 'scope (and supposedly, bigger fish to fry) to monitor my noodling around. Now, any idiot with a cellphone can get my tail number any time I use ATC, and from the helpful FAA website get my name and address, and from FlightAware get a pretty good idea when I’ll be home.

And you guys are worried about scatology?

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Oh, my. I must agonize extensively over this today.
On second thought, I think I’ll go ahead and mow the lawn.