Aviation Safety Inspector (Operations) (Principal Operations Inspector)

Job Title

POI receives administrative direction from management in terms of broadly defined missions or functions. The POI, mostly independently plans, designs, and carries out programs, projects, studies, or other work. The work is normally accepted without change. Completed work may be reviewed for adherence to FAA policy and for assurance that project requirements have been fulfilled. Some FG-14 assignments involve service wide responsibility for application of expert knowledge of flight operations for advanced multiengine turbojet aircraft. Such employees are concerned with all aspects of the operational capabilities and limitations of the aircraft. Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASIs) at the FG-14 level establish technical procedures and performance indexes and review complete flight operations programs for leaders in the aviation industry, or organizations of comparable scope and complexity, or a uniquely complex group of general aviation organizations. Assignments at this level are of great scope and unusual complexity.

Illustrative Assignments

1. As a Service wide expert on a particular type of advanced multiengine turbojet aircraft: Advises other inspectors of major changes in the operation of the aircraft; Standardizes procedures and judgments used by inspectors to evaluate the operation of the aircraft; Evaluates new training methods and equipment (e.g., simulators) for initial certification; Serves on national boards that determine the minimum equipment necessary to operate a particular type of aircraft safely; and Serves on boards that evaluate incidents, accidents, complaints, and other serious problems relating to the aircraft. Develops plans to resolve problems.

2. As the principal representative in regulatory oversight of general aviation and air carrier activities, exercises certificate authority over extensive and complex operations. Analyzes flight operations involving large fleets of turbojet aircraft engaged in passenger and freight service. (By comparison, FG-13 employees exercise certificate authority over less complex operations or perform major portions of the certification, inspection, and surveillance under the direction of FG-14 inspectors.)

3. Exercises certificate authority and safety responsibility over a complex of broad and varied general aviation organizations such as air carriers, executive and/or industrial operators, designees, and flight schools when the activities monitored equate collectively to a major air carrier in terms of size and complexity of aircraft fleet employed, scope and technical complexity of operations, management sophistication, industry leadership, and public impact. The magnitude, intensity, and scope of program responsibility are typically such as to require significant and regular assistance of lower graded inspectors.