I just read that Robert Sturgell will be nominated to be the new FAA Administrator. Has anybody heard any information about our new friend?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/10/23....ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Topgun Navy fighter pilot who went on to fly commercial jetliners is being nominated to run the Federal Aviation Administration for the next five years.

Now acting FAA administrator, Robert A. Sturgell, 48, who goes by Bobby, will be nominated by President Bush for promotion by Congress to the permanent position.

A lawyer and former official of the National Transportation Safety Board, Sturgell has been deputy FAA administrator since 2003.

"Bobby has worked tirelessly to modernize our nation's air traffic control system," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday.

"He has over three decades of real world experience in the field."

Before entering government at the transportation safety board, Sturgell was a flight operations supervisor and a line pilot for United Airlines. He flew Boeing 757s and 767s in domestic and international operations.

Earlier, he served as a Navy fighter pilot and was an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School, known as Topgun where the Navy trains its best pilots in advanced air combat tactics. He flew the F-14, F-18, F-16 and A-4 aircraft.

"He shares the president's strong commitment to continuing to preserve the safest period of aviation on record," Perino said. She called on Congress to swiftly confirm him to a full five-year term.

Sturgell moved up from deputy FAA administrator to acting administrator when Marion C. Blakey's term ended on September 13. He had previously served as her senior policy adviser when she headed the National Transportation Safety Board before moving to FAA.

He has also practiced aviation law with the Washington firm of Shaw Pittman.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Virginia law school, Sturgell and his wife, Lynn, have a son and live in Owings, Maryland



-MJ

 

Sounds like a great man for the job. What's the catch?

 

Good question. I'm waiting for one.

 

Hopefully it'll be for the positive, and keep things moving.

 

Theyre a pilot. I think that already prequalifys them to know what theyre talking about no matter what.

 

I don't envy the fella. Look what he had to put up with less than a month ago when he was still only Acting Administrator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpomH9eNPV8

And for what it's worth, NATCA is against his nomination, although it seems to be against anything about the FAA, but EAA and the ATA are rooting for him.

The University of Virginia Law School is a good one though; however, nobody ever asks where one went to law school and it really doesn't matter (just look at me. )

 

I'm liking this video. I loved his statement "Regulation, it's almost like a swear word around here."

 

Sounds like he might be a scab. I don't have my list with me. Anyone else know?

 

Nope, he's clean. He might have been hired as a management type, which would technically make him ineligible to scab, right?

I'd like to think that this administration would not go so far as to appoint a certified scab as head of the FAA. I hope.

 

really, seems to me that this administration would be more likely than any other before to do so. with the top level corporate racketeering they allow to go on and the war on the union worker what makes you think they wouldnt do just that?