Originally Posted by
MarkerInbound
The FAA has an "acting" -
Administrator
Deputy Administrator
Chief of Staff
Associate Administrator Airports
Assistant Administrator Finance and Management
Assistant Administrator Next Gen
And on and on. The previous manager for Engines and Propeller Standards died a couple years ago. Ms Grant has been in that office all this century. They probably don't want to make her position official as she'd go up a notch in pay.
Not really germane to the rampant speculation on this event; but...
Gov employee here (not FAA or NTSB, but another federal safety regulator). While 17+ years seems kind of long in my experience (has she really been an actor in that role for that length of time, or are you extrapolating her time in service with the FAA to that one position - people do move around a lot in Fed agencies), acting managers are a fact of life in government service. It takes time to post, interview, hire (most often from within) for a management position in a Fed agency. Also, there are generally time limits on how long one can act in a higher-graded position without receiving the higher-grade pay.
Most of us - even the managers - are competent professionals just trying to do our part to serve the public. This even applies to the political appointees (although I'll grant it 's become more of an exception in the last year or so
). I thought Chairman Sumwalt did a fine job in the media briefing posted earlier.
Back to lurking. Thanks to the many professionals who make this site such an engaging read for this wanna-be aviator.