From this article it seems that Capt. John Dunkin is a highly competent pilot & has the credentials to be considered for the job. According to one source, "He’s on the list because he's the president’s pilot, but if he gets the job it won't be because he's the president's pilot,”.

What do you guys think?

https://www.axios.com/exclusive-trump-p ... 8e80d.html

The argument doesn't make any sense. You need to be on the list to get the job, so if he's on the list because he's the president's pilot, then he will get the job because he's the president's pilot.

How's that swap-draining going?

Judging by how bad the FAA is it could only help.

scbriml wrote:

How's that swap-draining going?

They're draining the swamp and filling it with their own toxic sewage.

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

From the documentary about putting winglets on Trump 757, his pilot seems like a level headed and competent manager. I agree with others that a longtime federal bureaucrat is not necessarily more qualified than an outsider.

Why doesn't he just stick to donuts?

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

No...but let me ask you this: if you're the manager of a team and your son and someone else applied to a position (for which they both have excellent credentials), who will you pick? Pick your son and that's nepotism no matter how you look at it...it's a conflict of interest. Pick the other guy and you'll be accused of being harsh.

If Trump wants his personal pilot in charge of the FAA, that's totally fine. However, because he personally knows the pilot there's a conflict of interest, especially if there are possibly other pilots with more experience or stellar qualifications. He should allow a committee to select the qualified candidates and then he should vet them. Give the process some transparency.

The optics will not be forgiving and all the public will see is a guy who landed a job because he knows the president. In a country that complains about how merit should be what earns you a spot in college and not being of a particular race or being in with the review committee, it seems like yet another double standard for many conservatives.

But then again: IOKIYAR.

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Donno about this...is the US out of Brain Surgeons?

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Sort of like when JFK appointed his brother to be the attorney general of the United States?

dfwjim1 wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Sort of like when JFK appointed his brother to be the attorney general of the United States?

Sure, like that if you wish.

Do you support that?

Tugg

I think this more fake news. Not going to happen IMO.

scbriml wrote:

How's that swap-draining going?

Do you know this guy?

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Wow you are privy to this guys flying record?? What a bunch of horseshit. You gotta love the net where you can lie all you want and there is no one to challenge you?

einsteinboricua wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

No...but let me ask you this: if you're the manager of a team and your son and someone else applied to a position (for which they both have excellent credentials), who will you pick? Pick your son and that's nepotism no matter how you look at it...it's a conflict of interest. Pick the other guy and you'll be accused of being harsh.

If Trump wants his personal pilot in charge of the FAA, that's totally fine. However, because he personally knows the pilot there's a conflict of interest, especially if there are possibly other pilots with more experience or stellar qualifications. He should allow a committee to select the qualified candidates and then he should vet them. Give the process some transparency.

The optics will not be forgiving and all the public will see is a guy who landed a job because he knows the president. In a country that complains about how merit should be what earns you a spot in college and not being of a particular race or being in with the review committee, it seems like yet another double standard for many conservatives.

But then again: IOKIYAR.

Yeah, for most jobs. This is not a normal civil servant job though; it is a presidential appointee job. It looks like the FAA Administrator reports to the Secretary of Transportation. For such jobs, the president nominates somebody they think is a good fit for the position and then that person is given an up/down vote by the US Senate.

BravoOne wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Wow you are privy to this guys flying record?? What a bunch of horseshit. You gotta love the net where you can lie all you want and there is no one to challenge you?

are you saying you don't trust NTSB ? or were you to lazy to look up his record yourself.
https://arffwg.org/news/ntsb-cites-pilo ... nce-plane/

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

BravoOne wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Wow you are privy to this guys flying record?? What a bunch of horseshit. You gotta love the net where you can lie all you want and there is no one to challenge you?

are you saying you don't trust NTSB ? or were you to lazy to look up his record yourself.
https://arffwg.org/news/ntsb-cites-pilo ... nce-plane/

To be fair, if you read the NTSB report it does say that Pence's plane was piloted by an Eastern-employed pilot. Dunkin was not at the controls. I based this on the following

"Dunkin has served as Trump's personal pilot since 1989, according to a Smithsonian Channel documentary about private planes." http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/09/news/co ... index.html

and

The Captain
The captain, age 58, held an airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate with a rating for airplane single- and multiengine land with commercial privileges, with type ratings on the Boeing 737, DC-10, DC-8, and MD-11, Bombardier CL-65, BAE Systems HS-114, and Lockheed Martin L188. He also held a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first-class medical certificate dated July 20, 2016, with a limitation for glasses or corrective lenses for near and intermediate vision. He was hired by Eastern Air Lines in June 2015 as a first officer and upgraded to captain in February 2016, when he received captain leadership training. At the time of the incident, he was based in Miami, Florida.

Before joining Eastern Air Lines, the captain was a pilot at Centurion Cargo, where he was hired as a first officer on the DC-10 in 2005 and subsequently upgraded to captain on the MD11 in 2010. According to Eastern Airlines personnel records, the captain had 20,638 hours of flight experience, 14,767 hours pilot-in-command (PIC) time, with 3,000 hours on 737s and 202 hours as PIC on 737s. He flew 75 hours, 28 hours, and 11 hours during the 90-, 30-, and 7-day periods, respectively, preceding the incident. He also reported flying 1.5 hours during the 24-hour period before the incident. His most recent 737 proficiency check occurred March 16, 2016. A review of FAA records found no prior accident, incident, or enforcement actions.
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... l&IType=IA

*I can't believe I'm defending a Trump associate...

Tugger wrote:

dfwjim1 wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

this is typical of Trump, he's been giving jobs to his family and friends who are no where near qualified to do the job. Nobody in his base care's. Which only shows me that Trump followers love to drink the Trump branded kool-aid.

btw those wanting a pilot, to run the F.A.A. I don't have a problem with that, except this pilot has a poor flying record. Which says a lot about Trump judgement.

Sort of like when JFK appointed his brother to be the attorney general of the United States?

Sure, like that if you wish.

Do you support that?

Tugg

It doesn’t matter!

JFK set the precedent for nepotism.

Bill Clinton set the precedent for lying.

Ergo, it’s open season for Republicans in perpetuity on both!

We silly libtards asked for it after all ...

TheFlyingDisk wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

BravoOne wrote:

Wow you are privy to this guys flying record?? What a bunch of horseshit. You gotta love the net where you can lie all you want and there is no one to challenge you?

are you saying you don't trust NTSB ? or were you to lazy to look up his record yourself.
https://arffwg.org/news/ntsb-cites-pilo ... nce-plane/

To be fair, if you read the NTSB report it does say that Pence's plane was piloted by an Eastern-employed pilot. Dunkin was not at the controls. I based this on the following

"Dunkin has served as Trump's personal pilot since 1989, according to a Smithsonian Channel documentary about private planes." http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/09/news/co ... index.html

and

The Captain
The captain, age 58, held an airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate with a rating for airplane single- and multiengine land with commercial privileges, with type ratings on the Boeing 737, DC-10, DC-8, and MD-11, Bombardier CL-65, BAE Systems HS-114, and Lockheed Martin L188. He also held a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first-class medical certificate dated July 20, 2016, with a limitation for glasses or corrective lenses for near and intermediate vision. He was hired by Eastern Air Lines in June 2015 as a first officer and upgraded to captain in February 2016, when he received captain leadership training. At the time of the incident, he was based in Miami, Florida.

Before joining Eastern Air Lines, the captain was a pilot at Centurion Cargo, where he was hired as a first officer on the DC-10 in 2005 and subsequently upgraded to captain on the MD11 in 2010. According to Eastern Airlines personnel records, the captain had 20,638 hours of flight experience, 14,767 hours pilot-in-command (PIC) time, with 3,000 hours on 737s and 202 hours as PIC on 737s. He flew 75 hours, 28 hours, and 11 hours during the 90-, 30-, and 7-day periods, respectively, preceding the incident. He also reported flying 1.5 hours during the 24-hour period before the incident. His most recent 737 proficiency check occurred March 16, 2016. A review of FAA records found no prior accident, incident, or enforcement actions.
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... l&IType=IA

*I can't believe I'm defending a Trump associate...

umm https://www.politicususa.com/2018/02/26 ... w-faa.html

Again, nepotism. Real qualifications don't matter in this administration. My dad is a private pilot of a Cessna 336. He's also really successful in real estate and healthcare. So, I think we should nominate him as FAA Administrator. You run, you run, everyone runs! Everyone is qualified! (Just like the joke everyone can grow up and be president). This is not true.

Also, I'm successful in real estate. So, I must be qualified to lead the country. Wait. I'm only successful in real estate. I'm not also a multiple bankruptcy, social media-whining, con artist, malignant narcissist. So, never mind. Disregard my credentials.

Why can't conservatives just call a spade, a spade. This administration is a total joke, and an oligarchy.

Credit where credit is due: At least this guy knows about flying. More than Rick Perry knows about energy or Sonny Perdue knows about agriculture or Ben Carson knows about Housing and Urban Development...

But, this guy's main claim to fame is he is the pilot for tRump. You just have to know someone to get a job in the current administration. Who was that guy who had to pull his nomination because too many Senators asked about his qualifications?

seb146 wrote:

Credit where credit is due: At least this guy knows about flying. More than Rick Perry knows about energy or Sonny Perdue knows about agriculture or Ben Carson knows about Housing and Urban Development...

But, this guy's main claim to fame is he is the pilot for tRump. You just have to know someone to get a job in the current administration. Who was that guy who had to pull his nomination because too many Senators asked about his qualifications?

Or the Trump judicial nominee who had NEVER tried a case...Matthew Peterson.

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

TheFlyingDisk wrote:

DLFREEBIRD wrote:

are you saying you don't trust NTSB ? or were you to lazy to look up his record yourself.
https://arffwg.org/news/ntsb-cites-pilo ... nce-plane/

To be fair, if you read the NTSB report it does say that Pence's plane was piloted by an Eastern-employed pilot. Dunkin was not at the controls. I based this on the following

"Dunkin has served as Trump's personal pilot since 1989, according to a Smithsonian Channel documentary about private planes." http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/09/news/co ... index.html

and

The Captain
The captain, age 58, held an airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate with a rating for airplane single- and multiengine land with commercial privileges, with type ratings on the Boeing 737, DC-10, DC-8, and MD-11, Bombardier CL-65, BAE Systems HS-114, and Lockheed Martin L188. He also held a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first-class medical certificate dated July 20, 2016, with a limitation for glasses or corrective lenses for near and intermediate vision. He was hired by Eastern Air Lines in June 2015 as a first officer and upgraded to captain in February 2016, when he received captain leadership training. At the time of the incident, he was based in Miami, Florida.

Before joining Eastern Air Lines, the captain was a pilot at Centurion Cargo, where he was hired as a first officer on the DC-10 in 2005 and subsequently upgraded to captain on the MD11 in 2010. According to Eastern Airlines personnel records, the captain had 20,638 hours of flight experience, 14,767 hours pilot-in-command (PIC) time, with 3,000 hours on 737s and 202 hours as PIC on 737s. He flew 75 hours, 28 hours, and 11 hours during the 90-, 30-, and 7-day periods, respectively, preceding the incident. He also reported flying 1.5 hours during the 24-hour period before the incident. His most recent 737 proficiency check occurred March 16, 2016. A review of FAA records found no prior accident, incident, or enforcement actions.
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... l&IType=IA

*I can't believe I'm defending a Trump associate...

umm https://www.politicususa.com/2018/02/26 ... w-faa.html

You said Dunkin is a poor pilot - but again in the link you provided it shows that the problematic pilots weren't him. If you have said he was a lousy manager, then that would have been fine.

While I've never chartered a plane before, I'm pretty sure the party chartering the aircraft has little say over the crewing of the charter flight.

Let not hatred get in the way of the facts even if it doesn't support our views.

einsteinboricua wrote:

No...but let me ask you this: if you're the manager of a team and your son and someone else applied to a position (for which they both have excellent credentials), who will you pick? Pick your son and that's nepotism no matter how you look at it...it's a conflict of interest. Pick the other guy and you'll be accused of being harsh.

If Trump wants his personal pilot in charge of the FAA, that's totally fine. However, because he personally knows the pilot there's a conflict of interest, especially if there are possibly other pilots with more experience or stellar qualifications. He should allow a committee to select the qualified candidates and then he should vet them. Give the process some transparency.

The optics will not be forgiving and all the public will see is a guy who landed a job because he knows the president. In a country that complains about how merit should be what earns you a spot in college and not being of a particular race or being in with the review committee, it seems like yet another double standard for many conservatives.

But then again: IOKIYAR.

I completely agree with your points on nepotism, but lets face it, if this position is indeed chosen by the president, then most candidates are likely going to be non-aviation professionals who just helped fund the presidents campaign. In the case of this president, likely an investment banker or similar. Would that have been better? The points about nepotism would still have been the same BTW.

It's nepotism.

That is all.

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

Someone with public policy experience would have been a better choice. We don't have to choose between two really crappy options. There's a whole lot of people in government who have been working their way up through the ranks, building their experience and their skillset and their resumes, and he could pick from one of those rather than going the nepotism route and picking someone who has barely any qualifications for the job.

Mir wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

Someone with public policy experience would have been a better choice. We don't have to choose between two really crappy options. There's a whole lot of people in government who have been working their way up through the ranks, building their experience and their skillset and their resumes, and he could pick from one of those rather than going the nepotism route and picking someone who has barely any qualifications for the job.

That's not how business works. Remember that tRump is running this place like a business. One of HIS businesses. He is running it on the "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" concept of business. It does not work well in government.

Mir wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

Someone with public policy experience would have been a better choice.

I honestly doubt that.

Back when Justin Trudeau appointed his cabinet, he was applauded for selecting people with relevant real-world experience, not some random academic with a nice CV and no real-life experience with the subject that he is working with.

The entire nepotism thing is a different thing entirely, but then again, many of these positions were always chosen based on who scratched the presidents back. They aren't open to the most suitable candidates in the first place.

Trump's pilot being named the FAA Director can't be any worse than the Obama "friends" who were "awarded" the contract to build the original Healthcare.gov website for the ACA (Affordable Care Act).

DIRECTFLT wrote:

Trump's pilot being named the FAA Director can't be any worse than the Obama "friends" who were "awarded" the contract to build the original Healthcare.gov website for the ACA (Affordable Care Act).

Here we go again.

The whataboutism implicitly acknowledges that it was wrong in the first place and thereby justifies it in continuation. That means you have no principled argument.

The above aside, I don’t think this particular instance is naked nepotism. I think it’s nakedly funny, but I don’t think it’s full-blown, egregious nepotism.

DIRECTFLT wrote:

Trump's pilot being named the FAA Director can't be any worse than the Obama "friends" who were "awarded" the contract to build the original Healthcare.gov website for the ACA (Affordable Care Act).

If the FAA is run as well as the original Heathcare.gov website, Trump won't be able to brag about now crashes on his watch.

VSMUT wrote:

Mir wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

You can say a lot about Trump, but putting a pilot in charge of the FAA probably isn't the worst choice in history. I mean, would an investment banker have been a better choice?

Someone with public policy experience would have been a better choice.

I honestly doubt that.

Back when Justin Trudeau appointed his cabinet, he was applauded for selecting people with relevant real-world experience, not some random academic with a nice CV and no real-life experience with the subject that he is working with.

Public policy experience means public policy experience, not just a nice CV.

A pilot has no experience in most of what the FAA does. If you get someone who has been a part of the leadership of a government organization, or even a large private organization, you've immediately found someone far better qualified than some guy's pilot. Those people are out there, plenty of them, and you can even find examples who have some aviation background.

Maybe he can fix the Middle East too since Jared seems to be on the outs and has the security clearance level of Stormi Daniels

Mir wrote:

We don't have to choose between two really crappy options. There's a whole lot of people in government who have been working their way up through the ranks, building their experience and their skillset and their resumes, and he could pick from one of those rather than going the nepotism route and picking someone who has barely any qualifications for the job.

Yes but according to hard-right-wing logic, everyone who works for the government is automatically incompetent and is "part of the problem", regardless of their actual experience/qualifications.

MaverickM11 wrote:

Maybe he can fix the Middle East too since Jared seems to be on the outs and has the security clearance level of Stormi Daniels

Your humour has been right on the mark this last week, MaverickM11. More than a few of your comments have given me a good chuckle.