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Former Colgan POI and Q400 Ops

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Regardless of what comes out of these allegations, I do believe that a conflict of intrest exists since Chuck Colgan is a Senator. Even though the FAA is it's own agency, the government is a good ole boy club.....people know people who know people and so on and so on.
 


Wow! What a great tie!

Three words...

Unemployed
Desperate
Fabricating


The overspeed "events" involved exceeding VMO by a few knots and setting of the ticker. Something none of us have ever done before; especially in a new airplane.

Looking up or up and to the left during a conversation is a good tell that someone is lying or searching for facts.

VV
 
Nobody likes a Fed to go too far. But in the case of this Colgan crash it does appear there were problems with training and possibly fatigue.

"Fatigue" is a fighting word around most regional airline management. If this Fed raised that issue, or issues regarding Certification of a new type which would push the schedule back, I can see him triggering a political grenade.

Who knows if he reached too far? We do know that somebody did not reach quite far enough.

The Fed does not state that he was pursuing crew violations or the operator's certificate. At the airline I flew for the operator was happy to throw a Captain under the regulatory bus while they kept their operator's certificate clean. I'm guessing this guy went after deficiencies in the program (which is the way it should be done to promote safety IMHO) and got political retribution. He also might have been an "AH" about it - that's what it looks like on a Mach 3 pass from 60,000 feet.
 
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The overspeed "events" involved exceeding VMO by a few knots and setting of the ticker. Something none of us have ever done before; especially in a new airplane.

The article says the Fed was on the jumpseat during the "overspeed" -- I assume that is is as minor as you say. If company policy was to write up such events in the maintenance log, who wouldn't, especially with a Fed watching over your shoulder?
 
The Fed does not state that he was pursuing crew violations or the operator's certificate. At the airline I flew for the operator was happy to throw a Captain under the regulatory bus while they kept their operator's certificate clean. I'm guessing this guy went after deficiencies in the program (which is the way it should be done to promote safety IMHO) and got political retribution. He also might have been an "AH" about it - that's what it looks like on a Mach 3 pass from 60,000 feet.

I think any airline would do that, given the option. After all, a pilot certificate is worth less than an air carrier certificate. That doesn't make it right, but you know what the management choice would be.

This is why programs such as ASAP are so essential. ASAP has had a pretty smooth rollout at my airline, and if anything, the company has erred on the side of protecting the pilots. For me, seeing the results of the old management team, that blows my mind. And it's a great thing.

We pilots often forget it, but ASAP is not necessarily just a get-out-of-jail free card for pilots (and other participating certificate holders). It's a safety trending program, and if more of these events were submitted, maybe Colgan would have picked up on the trend before the big one hit.
 
I'm certain that a bigger government is the answer. If only we had a bloated stimulus package to force that issue....

In all seriousness though, it's far easier to shut up and let things happen than to speak up and make waves. At least one FAA guy had the stones to do what's right regardless of the obvious retribution. How many of your airline's inspector's would have done the same?
 
Ol' Wrong Way Monteleon. This is the same guy that when he flew at CCAir as a shorts Captain, flew into the wrong airport at night back in the 80's then had the nerve to takeoff again with notfying dispatch or getting a clearance. Good thing the fields were non-controlled airports. His FO kept telling him that he was on final for the wrong airport repeatedly. He told his FO to just shut up and let him land that he was the Captain. Then when Wrong Way realized what he done, he took off again and landed at the right airport. Never told dispatch and never apoligized to the passengers. Needless to say, he was fired for that. FO was not reprimanded but was promoted to the left seat.

But he was hired by the FAA. Wrong Way needs to learn to play ball with the big dogs or you will get burned. He was an incompetant Inspector. He screwed the Ops Manual so bad at Colgan, it will take years to fix it. Not to mention the cost of printing up all those revisions he wanted.
 
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Your right, there was obliously nothing at colgan to be concerned about? He may be imperfect, but nothing I have ever heard or seen from colgan or pinnacle management makes me think safety. And you should not be expected to "play ball with the big boys" if you have safety concerns. It says alot about the safety culture of your airline to even say that.
 

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