It would be interesting to take a poll to see how many of us have been subjected to an FAA ramp check. I’m willing to bet it would be a very low number because this relatively rare occurrence is usually delegated to brand-new hires who really aren’t qualified to do much else.
I guess it was a ramp check which was my first job when I was a fledgling inspector at the Chicago Air Carrier District Office. A middle-of-the-night phone call dispatched me to an air carrier ramp at O’Hare (KORD) because one of United’s Caravels (I think) had no compass correction card mounted in the cockpit—a discrepancy that would severely compromise the safety of its scheduled flight to New York or somewhere.
