FAA Inspectors - Great Lakes Region
 

Does anyone have any experience with Great Lakes Region, Indianapolis - FSDO-11 Inspectors Ricky Daniel or Michael Laurenzano?

Mr. Daniel is Frontier’s POI, both he and Mr. Laurenzano seem to “march to a different drummer” and lay awake at night trying to figure out how to violate pilots over absolutely nothing. Or even worse, for doing the exactly correct thing.

It is my understanding that Mr. Laurenzano was assigned to another airline’s certificate and was removed from that position.

Does anyone know if it helps to write the Manager of the Flight Standards Division that oversees the Region or not?

Or is it best to go through the Company or an Attorney?

Thanks in advance for any input you might have.

My personal experience is to escalate it to their managers helps. If it doesn't work then you need to go to the regional level. If enough people complain about it, then you will have some success getting these vindictive types removed from your cert.

I would recommend contacting your House representative. Their website should have a link for "help with a federal agency". Good luck!

If you are in a bad situation you need to lawyer up. Get a good one, spend the money. Easy to say, I know, but this is the only reliable approach. Remember that a lawyer works for whoever is paying the bills, and if that is not you then he is not representing you. So do not trust a company lawyer. (That also applies to union lawyers.)

In my experiance the Feds who are trying to make a name by scalping pilots wilt when confronted with a serious lawyer.

Mike L. was the POI at ATA Airlines for awhile. I believe he was removed from that position for cause. His reputation was similar to what you describe by distributing pink slips to crews who were following company procedures to the letter.

It's amazing how long these guys hang around.

Good luck on setting things right.

Blue

ML is a steam gauge guy, he knows nothing about modern aircraft and has a history of failing his FSI sims rides to be an inspector. He does not understand the airplane so he is "manual updated and flashlight" nazi.

Get the book "Violation" by former DPE (number 1 in the country at one point) and Flying magazine columnist Howard Fried. The Detroit FSDO went after him on a witch hunt. Howard's also an attorney so you get the legal perspective. Required reading for anyone facing enforcement action or the like. Exposes the dirty laundry on the government side.

ALPA Legal is the way to go. I dealt with them once, and we didn't even do anything wrong. Controller error. Call ALPA.

Indy FSDO is THE worst in the country. Welcome to hell.

They have been torturing CHQ, RW, and S5 forever. All they care about is how many pink slips or violations they can hand out.

98% of line pilots I come across are great guys. What happens to people like that who form such a vendetta? Why such hatred for fellow pilots?