By Jason Peckenpaugh
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Politics may stand in the way of the Federal Aviation Administration's effort to conduct the biggest job competition in federal history.

When pilots get lost in the fog of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, or try to navigate the Blue Ridge Mountains for the first time, they rely on Federal Aviation Administration specialists like Curt Lasley to help them get their bearings. On a cloudy night three years ago, Lasley helped a pilot who had lost the electronics on his plane - he was essentially flying blind - rise above the cloud line and find an airport where he could land. But after 18 years of being a lifeline for pilots in a jam, Lasley now faces his own quandary. He is one of 2,711 FAA flight service specialists whose jobs could be contracted out as a result of the largest, most complex public-private competition ever held in government. � On a rainy April morning, Lasley walked into a group interview with a reporter at an automated station in Leesburg, Va. When a manager extolled the possible benefits of the competition, including a separate budget for flight service, Lasley, a regional vice president with the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists, was quick to disagree. "You give one side, I'm going to give the other," he told his manager. "We look at it as nothing more than a check mark by the box for the President's Management Initiative."...

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