Transportation Security Administration (TSA) general aviation manager Brian Delauter, a former airline pilot with impeccable general aviation credentials, resigned last month after less than two years in the post to return to the private sector.

He was credited with ameliorating differences between the TSA and GA over some of the agency’s ham-handed GA security measures when he took over as TSA general manager for GA in 2009. AOPA president Craig Fuller said Delauter’s leadership will be missed. “We are hopeful that [TSA] Administrator [John] Pistole will build on the relationships Brian developed with the general aviation industry and pilots by finding a successor with a similarly strong GA background,” Fuller added.

Delauter began flying as a teenager, and after working as a flight instructor he went on to do some corporate flying before signing on with NetJets and then Northwest Airlines. After joining the TSA in 2002 as a “stakeholder liaison,” in 2006 he was named federal security director (FSD) at Jacksonville International Airport. In 2007 he was appointed FSD at Savannah International Airport, responsible for TSA activities at nine airports across two states.

According to AOPA, Delauter used his knowledge of GA culture to help form policy decisions at the TSA and improve the agency’s strained relationship with GA. During his tenure, he oversaw efforts to rework the controversial Large Aircraft Security Program (Lasp) proposal and worked with AOPA and Customs and Border Protection to streamline the process for pilots flying internationally.

His experience as a pilot helped him to understand and be responsive to the concerns of pilots, prompting Aviation Week to name him as a finalist for its 2011 Laureate Award for business and general aviation because he “alleviated a climate of distrust and contempt” in the agency’s relationship with GA. He told AOPA Live that he expects pilots to see the results of their comments in revisions to Lasp, which will be published as a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking later this year.