The FAA-The most dangerous organization in America

a reply to: Zaphod58

So theres one non-control freak branch of govt which isnt spying on us and tracking every detail of our lives...

Good.

a reply to: gladtobehere

It's far better that it's not doing a single damn thing that it's supposed to be doing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Well...

How a regulating authority can be run in such a manner is quite beyond my understanding. It seems as if the NTSB has more nouse and support behind it, than the FAA does, which seems idiotic to me. Surely it is better to correctly regulate aviation generally, so that the NTSB does not have as much work to do?

I mean, its aeronautics, but its not rocket science!

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: F4guy

The problem is that the FAA moves slower than someone walking uphill through molasses poured on glue. It's been 15 years since they were instructed to make changes because of 9/11, and they've done the absolute bare minimum required. Almost the only change to the licensing procedure is better quality paper.

Pilots are still expected to self report felonies, there are no pictures of the person it was issued to on it, the bare minimum background check is performed.....and this is sixteen years after 9/11. How long will it take to make real change? Thirty years? Forty?

Probably not until some major event happens that sees a lot of press coverage.

a reply to: face23785

That's generally how they work, and even then they move at a snails pace to allow the airlines time to spread whatever change they're making out.

What? You mean to tell me that years of cuts and downsizing have left a Federal agency woefully understaffed and unable to fully execute their agency mission? Shocking.

Welcome to every Federal agency.

a reply to: usernameconspiracy

It has nothing to do with the budget and cuts. They could make up a lot of money on registration for the database, and other ways. It's been talked about for years how the FAA is so deep in bed with the people they're supposed to be regulating that they couldn't actually regulate them if they tried. That started long before budget cuts started to really hit.

originally posted by: gimcrackery
The airport operators also have a responsibility as to what aircraft are parked on their ramps they have landing fees, rental fees etc., a reply to: Zaphod58

Actualy, they have absolutely no "responsibility." Many airports are not attended. At the ones that are, there might be a girl inside the fixed base operator to take fuel orders, but even that is going away with the recent prevalence of self-serve fuel. Very few airports have a landing fee, and at those that do, all they write down is the registration number of the aircraft and maybe the type (e. g. Cessna Mustang, Mooney M20, PC-12, etc.) There are 20,500 public use airports in the US. 500 have control towers. At the rest, there is no requirement to record any info about the users. If you want airport trust fund money for your airport, you need to keep some statistics about the number of operations, but no responsibility to id who is using it. For most general aviation flights in the US, there is no requirement to file any flight plan. So, if the weather is decent and if I plan on staying below 18,000 feet, I can run out to the airport, hop in my plane, and fly from South Florida to Seattle and there will be no record, as long as I use a prepaid credit card for fuel at self serve pumps, and stay away from towered airports. Even at towered airports, there is no record, even of the N number, after the operation (takeoff or landing) is concluded. You do run a slight risk of running into a random FAA ramp check, where an inspector checks all paperwork and looks at the aircraft, but the FAA budget has been slashed and there isn't any money to send inspectors around ramp checking random aircraft.