FAA Nominee Quizzed On Aviation Knowledge - AVweb

Excellent idea. Paul B. for administrator, and Mike Rowe for President. At the very least, how about filling these positions due to a person’s experience and qualifications, rather than what they look like.

That’s what campaigns and debates are for. Appointees unilaterally nominated by the occupant of the highest office have no such exposure to the voting public, only exposure to scrutiny by elected representatives of the voting public. Nominees for the various positions are in line for authority delegated by the occupant holding the highest office, hopefully to administer their department from a place of more specific knowledge in these fields than would be expected from the person in the highest office. The nomination process attempts to give the nation something better than a simple rubber-stamp approval of an unqualified nominee whose sole purpose is to promote a specific political agenda.

If a certificate or license granted by the bureaucracy is a prerequisite to “serving the people”, that illustrates the problem and not the solution.

Paul as Administrator wouldn’t work–he tends to speak what is really on his mind–instead of the indecipherable doublespeak of Washington.

Instead, these posts are filled with career government lackey’s (defined: “serville follower” or “a person who is obsequiously willing to obey or serve another person or group of people”.

Is it any wonder why government is held in so little regard by those it was originally designed to serve?

It goes back to the old adage–“If you want to get something done, hire a busy man.”

There are few qualifications to be president of the United States so why should there be any qualifications for someone that works for the president?

What a perfect quote!

Expertise isn’t always a good indicator either, witness some of the technocrats whose performance turned out to be less than stellar. To a large extent these appointments are always a crapshoot.

It’s been a year since the FAA has had a confirmed administrator, and Washington’s nomination has dragged on for eight months. Has ANYBODY noticed this? We’ve gotten along fine WITHOUT a head of the FAA.

It should give people pause to ask “WHY do we have this useless position and associated bureaucracy?”

I love Paul’s work and his forthright attitude but his fatal flaw is not having experience running a massive organization. There’s more to this job than being able to pass the ppl written.

Reference the qualifications’ thing for president, how’s that working out for the country for the last two and a half years?

Bill, The FAA Administrator and staff are way to important to be bothered by pesky G.A. issues. The FAA keep a couple employees in the basement next to the couple of registration folks to deal with that G.A. thingy stuff. Jet-A lobbyist fuel the FAA Admin. Office. :airplane:

I wanna to be Manager of the Small Aircraft Directorate so I can help, too …

Someone should ask Cruz if he knows what demagoguery is.

I admit, I’m of two minds here.
I’ve seen projects saved by skillful people management without much knowlege of the specifics of how to reach the goal.

On the other hand, understanding the goal is another matter. My concern here is that he doesn’t understaand the first principles of what the job entails, and might be antagonistic to them.

Agree re: the nominee’s ability toboth lead and manage complex organizations. Your second paragraph is unhelpful.

An FAA administrator must be able to “see around the corners” and sense when something is going wrong. This pattern recognition capability is only available to people who have experience in a field. Every week there is a new report of a runway intrusion and other situations that could have resulted in disasters. If you listen to the Biden administration, they tout the race and gender identity of the people they hire. I would much rather them promote the deep experience their nominees have in the field which they will administer.

SOMEBODY has to wear out N1, Jim …

Agree, Raf. If you owned the FAA and needed a new CEO, would you pick someone who ran the Olympics or someone who is a former airline pilot with management expertise?

Here is the question, look at the qualifications of the current acting FAA head administrator who seems highly qualified specifically and over all, and ask why is Washington even being considered. The answer is that unlike the current acting director, he checks all the Biden Admin boxes that have nothing to do with actual job qualifications.

A+ comment. When humor and truth intersect a strong point is made.

Aye