(January 2012) Some time back, Congress decided that the FAA’s goals were just downright incompatible. How could a federally mandated regulatory agency “encourage and develop civil aeronautics” while enforcing the regulations and exercising its authority to levy fines and suspend or revoke certificates? So guess which functions were eliminated? Washington also reminded the agency that its customers are passengers … period. It is “tasked” (as bureaucrats love to say) with protecting the flying public from people like us — pilots, mechanics, aviation companies and the airlines. Then, when things get too adversarial, a new administrator usually “comes on board” (another much-loved government phrase), proclaiming a new version of the old, a kinder and gentler FAA thing.
I remember a day in the FSDO, back in the early ’80s, when a newly appointed administrator, Adm. James Busey, held an agencywide teleconference. He seemed sincere about promoting a spirit of cooperation with industry (in government-speak, industry means anybody not behind government lines), and he said there were times when the complex, expensive and time-consuming task of processing a violation should be short-circuited. If a pilot did “something dumb” (my quote), the FAA should consider fixing the problem by hauling him into the office, reading him the riot act and putting his pilot certificate in a desk drawer for two weeks.
