Becoming a FAA inspector

[Rally]

Yes, obviously with my experience I would be on the GA side. I would not mind that. I think there is a few bad apples. The FAA I've dealt with while a little strange at times only really run into one idiot, that was ticket happy.

 

[Russ]

Its been my observation that the great majority of those bad mouthing inspectors have never encountered a fed and are using stories about the feds that have been told to them by others. They in turn pasas them along to other guys. Its not like I love having one in the JS, but I recognize that the level of safety we enjoy in the US is in part due to the FAA.

Grow up.

 

[91100 100 set]

Less than a week ago, I met with a Fed to get my SIC type for work. I was planning to drive from BUF to the ROC FSDO to get it done, and hit the Dinosaur BBQ for lunch (might as well make the drive worthwhile). So I called up the FSDO, got on the line with an inspector, and as it turns out, he was gonna be at the FBO in BUF the next day (lucky break, even if I missed out on the Dinosaur). Met him at Prior, we did the paperwork, and then spent the next 90 minutes BS'ing. Nice guy. He was United a few years back, went on leave, got hooked up with FAA, and never came back. We talked about airplanes, the job, the industry, ALPA, all kinds of stuff. He even gave me some good advice about how to handle my next medical certificate (with my hand surgery and the reduced function I might experience as a result). Like I said, nice guy, and at no time did I feel like I needed to cut it short and bail.

I'm sure there are certain FAA types out to get you, but I've never run into any.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Well, people make broad statements by pretty much saying if your FAA your a hatred amongst the flying community. That isn't true. If you believe that you've got some issues.

 

[I'veGot2Words]

I dont believe that all FAA guys are evil. Just most of them. From my experience, both as a flight instructor and in the airlines, the guys I have run into have been real idiots and most couldnt fly an ILS to save their life. You what they say; "those who cant.... work for the FAA.":laugh:

 

[Junkflyer]

They're kinda like cops, always around except when you need them.

 

[Ill Mitch]

I'll give me advice. I have a good buddy that fell to the dark side (actually, he is more like my second father) and he has tried to steer me to join the ranks. I am still giving it consideration.
Anyway, his advice to me to become competetive is to become an aviation safety counselor, current 135 or 121 with at least becoming a check airman, if you can get the CP or the DO slot that is even better, and network network network. Also, some sort of official safety training (like the courses with that company down in Los ANgeles teaches) looks good.

Even tho it is a gov't job and you have that application process to go through, the more people on the inside helping out the better.

As to my opinon about the Feds, the ratio of "good" inspectors outweigh the "bad" ones I have met.

 

[avbug]

Its been my observation that the great majority of those bad mouthing inspectors have never encountered a fed...

You apparently do very little observing. It's best done with the eyes open.

Well, people make broad statements by pretty much saying if your FAA your a hatred amongst the flying community. That isn't true.

Actually, it is true. That broad statement is quite accurate.

Now I don't like to generalize, and I hate to jump to conclusions...certainly not from the two inspectors who showed up one morning demanding to see my airplane at a remote location...demanding to see two items that were airworthiness issues, both hidden, both inside a locked aircraft...both things they couldn't have known about unless someone had entered the aircraft and removed the items...and who clearly had an agenda in mind before arriving on site. Certainly not from the inspector who was so hot to trot about busting me that he jumped out of a twin engine airplane with an applicant on board during a practical test, and ran to my aircraft, waving his form 110A and baning on the fuselage before my engine was shut down. Certainly not from the inspector who called me at ten at night saying he would drop everything, but that my report implicated him, and he was going to "nail me to the wall." Certainly not from the inspector who brought enforcement action, then told me he had done so to force me to obtain incriminating evidence for his investigation against my employer...and who told me he'd drop the matter if I helped violate my employer...and who let the paperwork go through after I refused. Certainly not the inspector who screamed and yelled on the ramp during a patient drop in an air ambulance, who siezed and went through the patients medical records, stomped his feet, turned purple and yelled and spat, and used language that few sailors know. Certainly not the FSDO manager who threatened to revoke my certificates for failure to be polite to the front desk secretary, but who dropped the issue when I agreed to buy her flowers.

Not those folks...I'm sure they are the exceptions to the rule. As is the gentleman who was in the cubicle next to me during a practical test, whom I overheard discussing a private pilot who had accepted money in reimbursement for carrying a friend from A to B. I'm sure he was just kidding when he said "I want to ruin this man's life. I want to make him an example. But not just an example. I want to crucify him. I want him miserable. I want to pull his beating heart out of his chest and hold it up, beating and bleeding for the world to see. I'm going to destroy him." Folks like that give the FAA a GOOD name, and engender feelings of warmth and brotherhood in the flying community.

I walked into a hangar years ago to see two classic aircraft on the floor. The shop manager, apparently thinking I was FAA because I was dressed and had an ID, quickly turned off his office lights, locked his records office, and disappeared for lunch. I'm sure he normally waits with baited breath for the FAA to come calling, hoping for a hug and friendly conversation...this was just something out of the blue. He was probably having a bad day.

The industry at large cherishes the opportunity to spend time with the FAA. I know I certainly do, because I understand that each of the few examples cited above, while personal unpleasant experiences, were probably just isolated instances that would never happen again in a million years. In fact, I bake a cake every day in the hopes that an inspector will drop in for a spot of tea and a snack.

I always keep an eye out for mismatched socks, just in case.

If you believe that you've got some issues.

Apparently I do. Even service as an aviation safety counselor didn't blind me to those things...but perhaps they're just abberations, and issues. What those issues might be, I can't say...but maybe if I just keep buying flowers, it will all go away.

D'ya think??

 

[G21Agoose]

Rally,

We could use more Feds who like their job for the right reasons...and not the "I have the power" piece. I know a few of them, and they are a pleasure to work with.

I bet you know a few of them........ I bet you do.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

I dont believe that all FAA guys are evil. Just most of them. From my experience, both as a flight instructor and in the airlines, the guys I have run into have been real idiots and most couldnt fly an ILS to save their life. You what they say; "those who cant.... work for the FAA.":laugh:

IM assuming we are talking strictly FSDO and not ATC man.

 

[Occam's Razor]

You apparently do very little observing. It's best done with the eyes open.

Actually, it is true. That broad statement is quite accurate.

Now I don't like to generalize, and I hate to jump to conclusions...certainly not from the two inspectors who showed up one morning demanding to see my airplane at a remote location...demanding to see two items that were airworthiness issues, both hidden, both inside a locked aircraft...both things they couldn't have known about unless someone had entered the aircraft and removed the items...and who clearly had an agenda in mind before arriving on site. Certainly not from the inspector who was so hot to trot about busting me that he jumped out of a twin engine airplane with an applicant on board during a practical test, and ran to my aircraft, waving his form 110A and baning on the fuselage before my engine was shut down. Certainly not from the inspector who called me at ten at night saying he would drop everything, but that my report implicated him, and he was going to "nail me to the wall." Certainly not from the inspector who brought enforcement action, then told me he had done so to force me to obtain incriminating evidence for his investigation against my employer...and who told me he'd drop the matter if I helped violate my employer...and who let the paperwork go through after I refused. Certainly not the inspector who screamed and yelled on the ramp during a patient drop in an air ambulance, who siezed and went through the patients medical records, stomped his feet, turned purple and yelled and spat, and used language that few sailors know. Certainly not the FSDO manager who threatened to revoke my certificates for failure to be polite to the front desk secretary, but who dropped the issue when I agreed to buy her flowers.

Not those folks...I'm sure they are the exceptions to the rule. As is the gentleman who was in the cubicle next to me during a practical test, whom I overheard discussing a private pilot who had accepted money in reimbursement for carrying a friend from A to B. I'm sure he was just kidding when he said "I want to ruin this man's life. I want to make him an example. But not just an example. I want to crucify him. I want him miserable. I want to pull his beating heart out of his chest and hold it up, beating and bleeding for the world to see. I'm going to destroy him." Folks like that give the FAA a GOOD name, and engender feelings of warmth and brotherhood in the flying community.

I walked into a hangar years ago to see two classic aircraft on the floor. The shop manager, apparently thinking I was FAA because I was dressed and had an ID, quickly turned off his office lights, locked his records office, and disappeared for lunch. I'm sure he normally waits with baited breath for the FAA to come calling, hoping for a hug and friendly conversation...this was just something out of the blue. He was probably having a bad day.

And then there was the strawberries!

(rolls ball bearings between fingers)

And "Yellowstain"...they called me "Yellowstain"!

 

[Russ]

The story about destroying the pilots life being overheard..

Sorry but I 've heard that same story from a handful of pilots. Nice if whomever generates these stories could come up a few new ones.

 

[avbug]

I don't know about generating anything; I was there, in person, and I knew all the individuals involved. The inspector who made the statement was not kidding. I know him and his character from his previous employment. His reputation preceeded him, and was well deserved.

That same character approached an individual I knew following a church service, once. The individual had used his private pilot flying as an example of a point he was making in a talk, about helping others. The inspector caught him as they were departing the church; he happened to have been in the congregation. The inspector told this individual he had just heard the man make an admission to violating the regulation before the congregation, and that he would see the individuals pilot certificate revoked for it.

I don't know about any rumors or stories...my own accounts are first hand, my ears, my eyes, my person that was threatened. I was there...save your pandering to the rumor control crowd for someone else.

 

[Occam's Razor]

So the logical conclusion is that most Feds are jerks because this guy is/was a jerk?

Are there any pilots you may know that are over-zealous jerks?

Any doctors?

lawyers?

Cops?

Military officers?

Politicians?

Teachers?

 

[psysicx]

Do pilot inspectors have to fly with a certain amount of crews?

 

[avbug]

Are there any pilots you may know that are over-zealous jerks?

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=74300

So the logical conclusion is that most Feds are jerks because this guy is/was a jerk?

No, of course not. I'm quite certain that he, and the scores of others just like him, are the exceptions to the rule.

Sorta derails the rule when there are more exceptions, than rule. Go figure.

You can't always tell them coming by the mismatched socks...sometimes accidents happen and they really do match.

It's the eyes. They're too close together.

 

[I'veGot2Words]

IM assuming we are talking strictly FSDO and not ATC man.

Yes... Most ATC guys I know are great. However every group has its bad apple, pilots included. Its the inspectors I have the problem with as a whole. They are the same guys who were hall monitor in high school and gave out detention slips to everyone without a bathroom pass. Why would anyone want to become one of the fuzz in the aviatoin world? Some of the Inspectors I know harrass good pilots for the smallest things and look for ways to viloate them.
I agree that some Inspectors are good. But they seem to be in the minority. The majority of ones that I have come across seem to be bitter towards successful pilots. Leave us alone and go reorgonize your pocket protector.

 

[Junkflyer]

The inspectors go to Ok City every year to get reprogrammed. A few friends have gone over and yes, they are different people now.

 

[PastFastMover]

When I first got into this biz the Feds were almost exclusively ex World War II types. What a great bunch of people. They really knew what was important and what was not. Now it seems most of the Feds are just people that could not get hired by an airline for whatever reason. They have a completely different perspective, and at least for me not the correct one. But as usual, everyone has their own opinion. I just preferred the older highly experienced types that had walked the walk for real.

 

[transpac]

The inspectors go to Ok City every year to get reprogrammed. A few friends have gone over and yes, they are different people now.

Yeah, OKC is a grim and foreboding place to those of us who would never stoop to accept their 100G salary plus fancy bennies and retirement. I've heard they've all burned their logbooks and spend their days plotting to kill aviation. I read somewhere that they've moved the torture chambers from Iraq and are putting one in each FSDO.