The Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) shortage is improving, according to officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
I don’t understand how this affects regional airlines.
Not enough examiners = fewer pilots to send on for the ATP…
A significant number of the 935 existing DPEs seem to not be exercising the privilege. Is there a performance mandate for the DPEs, such as “must perform xx exams per year” or something? If not, adding more DPEs may not help much.
I agree. The math doesn’t add up to a shortage, but a lack of activity by existing designees. There is not a minimum exam requirement for designees, but there is a requirement for the managing office to evaluate the need for designees based on several factors. All local FSDOs who oversee designees, DPEs, DMEs, DARs…etc., are supposed to continuously evaluate that need - primarily based on public demand - and manage their number of designees accordingly. Stagnation by designees in any particular geographical area should result in termination of designees on a case-by-case basis until the numbers fit the need. But it appears that is not happening.
When i was finishing up, i called the school, let them know about my tight schedule, and asked them if i could take my tests at the end of the week i was going to be there.
They made it happen. Granted, this was 20 years ago. But i would’ve thought that in this 20 years, things would have gotten better. I was wrong…
A DPE gets $1800-2000 cash for a CFI checkride. In fact there’s nothing to cap the price of a checkride that the government is obligated to provide for free but instead chooses to run a racket by delegating it to a select few Friends of the FSDO. Think of it as if policing was provided by Uber drivers who set their own rates.
Do you think there are any DPEs that aren’t doing as many checkrides as they want?
The whole DPE system is a drag on flight training since you start with no particular checkride date target. You might be fully trained then wait 2 months for a DPE. Then if they choose they can down you after being paid but before actually flying for something like your written test results having your middle name and your medical having your middle initial. Recourse? Suck it up kid and come back in two months.
Prices are capped by the designees themselves by virtue of the standard fee. Fees have to be agreed upon by the two parties beforehand and if the applicant disagrees, he may designee shop until his heart’s content. And yes, FSDOs are able to provide the same services for free that a designee can provide. But an applicant needs to make a choice, time or money. If time is not an issue, then an applicant will wait until the service can be provided based on FSDO resources. If time is an issue, then fork out the money for a designee. It’s that simple. Unless of course you would like the gov’t to hire a ton more ASIs at taxpayer expense.
I would love to keep my rates for check rides low. $500 for a PPL is nuts!
Rates have gone up over the years to match the cost of liability insurance. After every accident everybody sues the last DPE that signed the logbook.
Unless I can figure out how to give twice the number of check rides per year, I have to charge twice what I think it’s worth just to make it worth my time and cover costs.
Being a DPE is not the best way to get rich in Aviation (you can fill in the punchline here yourself).
A young man I know at the airport just finished up a couple months ago. It took him about 6 months to get his checkride. And he had to travel out of state to do it. It wasn’t a cost thing, it was a problem of finding a DPE who could get it done. And some of the DPEs he had been talking with were charging fees that I considered egregious and unethical. The difficulty in getting a checkride is just one of the things that is throttling growth of the pilot population. If I would have had that kind of problem 40 years ago, I would have just said to hell with it.
My initial license, 50 + years ago, was a Commercial, Multi-Engine Land Limited to Center Thrust, Instrument Airplane, acquired at the end of USAF pilot training by virtue of passing the Military Competency Written Test. That was it. My next three ratings were removal of the center thrust rating, Commercial Glider pilot, and ATP, all done for free by FSDO inspectors. My Sport Pilot Gyroplane rating cost just under $500 and the DAR inspection on my home built gyroplane cost $1000. Those two were at the beginning of the Covid scam and the FAA would not come out of the basement. I neither need nor want any further ratings.
It’s simply the law of supply and demand effecting the cost of their (DPEs) service in this unregulated industry.
Saw it first hand over the last couple months as my son finished up his PPL. The cost of that ride between 5 different DPEs varied from $700 to $1500, all for the same service, and that’s not including the cost to travel 40 miles ($200 from one guy) to where the student may be renting his acft for the ride. Oh and did I mention the NON refundable deposit ($200) just to get on his schedule? Throw in the possibility of a DIP at another $700……. It’s ridiculous.
Don’t forget the kids (ok, young adults) in this generation are usually pretty computer savvy, which makes it easy for them to vet the “quality” of the DPE. This leads to an internet intel data file pertaining to a whole slew of information on the DPE, good or bad. You can’t control it, it’s out there, and it DEFINITELY has an impact on who’s being demanded for evaluations. Which may partially explain the 350 that are pulling the load for the rest.
If the FAA wants to make a positive impact on DPE numbers why don’t they open up a fast track flow for retired military and airline folks with training and checking backgrounds? We know there’s a large group available that fit this category over the course of the last few years of attrition through timing out at 65. They have professional experience in the industry, and widely varied backgrounds.
This pool while perhaps not immediately suited for the role of DPE could easily and expeditiously be developed into a very experienced pool of DPE candidates.
Until the FAA decides to take a more open minded approach to solving this shortage of evaluators it won’t put a dent in the demand for DPEs, and when it finally does it’ll be just about the time for another down cycle in this industry leaving the few hundred new DPEs with not enough work.
You’re spot on, and just FYI, I am a retired USAF pilot (IP in the 3 fighters I flew) and retired from a second airline career, 19500 total hours, actively flying my RV-14 and a relatively new CFII – do give an occasional lesson when the youngsters are all booked. My DPE application was rejected. I sit in on our local DPE quarterly Zoom meetings, there are some real “interesting” DPEs out there!
Our best and hardest working DPE in eastern Washington was my friend Jim… He died a year ago and now the difficulty of getting a checkride locally has become much greater. I’m working on my CFII and have no idea how this particular step is going to work out just yet. Stressful, and expensive.
Holy smoke! I had no idea that a check ride was that expensive! I took practically all of them with a GADO or FSDO, free. Wow! Damn!
I had my own bad experience with my would be DPE. I have a biased opinion and will let you decide good or bad. DPE comes in, looks over my log book and declares my night x-coutry flight didn’t count. Turns out according to ForeFlight the distance is 49.5 miles and not the required 50, even though to make that flight we traveled an extra 15-20 miles out around an 11,000 foot mountain that we would never dare cross at night in a 172. He took my money and left 15 minutes after arriving. Boiled my blood.
Technically it goes by straight line distance so it does not count, it was too short. From a real world point of view it would matter not at all and most people would ignore it. There is more to the story. Why did the DPE even check the distance? What else was going on to contribute to the situation?
I can only guess that the DPE was just being thorough. He had just arrived from the neighboring airport where he had failed another hopeful for some matter within that student’s log book. Same story, took his money and left. I later learned that this same DPE failed most of his hopefuls. My personal opinion is that he makes a really nice living on others failure to dot the I and cross the T. According to the government he is doing everything right. But to the common man, I think he goes a little too far.
If that’s the situation it sounds egregious and sinful.