DPE for CFI check ride

Majid. M

Majid. M

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Need to find a DPE for my CFI check ride in a different state. The state that I'm in there are not too many of them. Only three and non of them responding to my request.
I know there is a list of them in FAA web site, but what I don't know is that which one is qualified to do it. some of them are not qualified to do CFI check ride.
For example is this mean she/he is qualified to do it? DPE-FIEI-ASE? ( is this stand for Flight Instructor E? initial)

thank you all and keep flying and be safe
 
Call FSDOs. My check ride was out of the SAT FSDO and the FAA guy was very fair.
 
FSDO practical test is free. I recently knew of one person that did a private test with FSDO.
 
Majid. M said:
FSDO practical test is FREE? Interesting.
CFI practical test runs from 1200 to 1400 $.
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Well sure. It's a checkride with the FAA, i.e. a federal civilian employee. They are already getting their hourly pay rate from the taxpayers.

I did my CFI checkride with the FSDO (2012). It was nothing to be afraid of, the inspector was a regular guy and you wouldn't have known anything different. As it should be.

It used to be standard that your CFI checkride was with the FSDO.

The problem, these days, is that the FSDOs in general do not do very many checkrides due to budget cuts and manpower levels. Rumor has it that almost all FSDOs will tell you to use a DPE. But it doesn't hurt to try.
 
DPE-FIEI-ASE is likely what you seek. Flight Instructor Examiner Initial - Airplane Single Engine
 
Clip4 said:
FSDO practical test is free. I recently knew of one person that did a private test with FSDO.
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25 years ago when I did my checkride, this was standard procedure (in fact, I don't think a DPE could do a CFI checkride back then). The cost was free. And the FSDO was conveniently located at my home field. Couldn't have asked for more.
 
Brad Z said:
Why would they? Not many CFI applicants are taking their practical tests with inspectors at the FSDO these days.
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I agree. There is no longer any expectation that a CFI applicant take their checkride with the FSDO. There's probably not even any mention of that option in most CFI's training, which is completely understandable as I believe the number of CFI (or other) checkrides being conducted by the FSDOs these days is vanishingly small.
 
bbchien said:
That Identifies you as "of a certain age"....lol.
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Since I mentioned I know someone that in the last year who went to a FSDO for a private ride, hopefully a young and certain age.
 
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after 3 of my students had about 3 months wait locally and had to fly outside the state (costly event)to get a ride within reasonable time, I called local fsdo to remind them the cost of doing this and months added to getting through training. I was told they know but there's not enough inspectors to oversee more DPEs....what oversight? most of issues were paperwork that I recall, which was solved by online app now... there's rarely a formal complaint against a Dpe that requires much oversight resources.

you think a guy getting a biz jet type rating has to wait months for a DPE (or equivalent)... nope.

the only way to get promp FAA attention is if they think you did something they can violate you for.
 
AlphaPilotFlyer said:
after 3 of my students had about 3 months wait locally and had to fly outside the state (costly event)to get a ride within reasonable time, I called local fsdo to remind them the cost of doing this and months added to getting through training. I was told they know but there's not enough inspectors to oversee more DPEs....what oversight? most of issues were paperwork that I recall, which was solved by online app now... there's rarely a formal complaint against a Dpe that requires much oversight resources.

you think a guy getting a biz jet type rating has to wait months for a DPE (or equivalent)... nope.

the only way to get promp FAA attention is if they think you did something they can violate you for.
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The DPE problem is in a nutshell there are too few DPE's willing to perform the task given to them. There are roughly 900 DPE's across the country, but 3/4's of all exams are administered by about 350 of them, and roughly half of all exams are given by 200 of them.

DPE's control their own schedules and charge whatever they want for the service. So you have 100's of DPE's only doing the bare minimum to hold the designation or a little above it.

Now here's the other problem: The majority of DPE's feel their designation is a lifetime appointment. Go try to remove the designation and watch all the indignation erupt. Examiners lawyer up and the fight begins.

IMO more than half of the DPE's need booted out and people designated that want to actually perform the service. Also the min checkride requirements need to be increased and those not meeting the minimums need to be removed. And also IMO I believe the ASI's should start giving more of the checkrides if the applicant request them.
 
You're probably not going to get very far trying to schedule a CFI practical test with the FSDO.

8900.1 Ch 2, Sec 11, ¶5-499A (CHG 998, 8/29/2025) tells offices to use DPEs "to the maximum extent possible." It says the FSDO may give an initial CFI test itself "only… in unique circumstances," with the office manager assigning an ASI case by case. The actual shift came with N 8900.485 (10/2/2018). It ended FSDO scheduling of initial CFI rides for FIEI DPEs, except for the 24-hour pretest notice, and the policy now sits in 8000.95E.

The FSDO kept 44709 re-examination rides, along with a few other things like waivers, special medical evaluations, proficiency checks on DPEs and DPE observations, and some other oddball stuff. We DPEs received the opportunity to get SODA authorizations a while back.
 
Doc Holliday said:
The DPE problem is in a nutshell there are too few DPE's willing to perform the task given to them. There are roughly 900 DPE's across the country, but 3/4's of all exams are administered by about 350 of them, and roughly half of all exams are given by 200 of them.

DPE's control their own schedules and charge whatever they want for the service. So you have 100's of DPE's only doing the bare minimum to hold the designation or a little above it.

Now here's the other problem: The majority of DPE's feel their designation is a lifetime appointment. Go try to remove the designation and watch all the indignation erupt. Examiners lawyer up and the fight begins.

IMO more than half of the DPE's need booted out and people designated that want to actually perform the service. Also the min checkride requirements need to be increased and those not meeting the minimums need to be removed. And also IMO I believe the ASI's should start giving more of the checkrides if the applicant request them.
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I suspect you're referencing the letter sent by six members of Congress to Administrator Whitaker in 2024? We're doing slightly better now.

The FY2024 data shows 1,154 DPEs, 1,011 active, giving 124,229 tests. That's from the FAA's own Sec. 833 report.

The other source that's easily findable online is FSANA's statistics. It's not clear where they came from, exactly, but they could be accurate, although not quite aligned with the FAA roster totals one year apart. Their 2025 data says as published by General Aviation News summarizes:

  • 1,122 total DPEs were current at the end of FY2025, up from 1,035 in FY2024
  • 536 DPEs conducted between 100 and 400 tests in FY2025
  • 319 DPEs conducted less than 50 in FY2025
  • 48 DPEs conducted more than 400 tests in FY2025, with 22 conducting more than 500
  • 264 DPEs (roughly 23%) are covering 52.9% of the tests conducted in the year, which translates to 200 or more practical tests.

To me, that's a reasonably fair workload spread across that limited number of designees.

Let's be clear about something, 200 practical tests in a year is a HUGE number for a person who does not represent the FAA as a designee on a full-time basis. I've had some pretty active years doing checkrides in the last 8 years, to include the COVID period in which my work flying dropped practically to zero. Never cracked 200. I would say 100 is a very full borderline improbable workload for someone who works full-time, whether it's as a pilot or an executive or a tech support person or anything else. And 50 is nothing to sneeze at; that's roughly four practical tests per month, and of course that doesn't count all the checkrides that never start because the applicant or aircraft aren't qualified, or the weather moves in, etc.

Just my perspective, biased obviously. I don't know a DPE out there who doesn't make it a point to try to keep airmen moving through their certification arc. I'm sure there are some outliers, but to every man/woman I know, we certainly do our best.
 
Ryan F. said:
I suspect you're referencing the letter sent by six members of Congress to Administrator Whitaker in 2024? We're doing slightly better now.

The FY2024 data shows 1,154 DPEs, 1,011 active, giving 124,229 tests. That's from the FAA's own Sec. 833 report.

The other source that's easily findable online is FSANA's statistics. It's not clear where they came from, exactly, but they could be accurate, although not quite aligned with the FAA roster totals one year apart. Their 2025 data says as published by General Aviation News summarizes:

  • 1,122 total DPEs were current at the end of FY2025, up from 1,035 in FY2024
  • 536 DPEs conducted between 100 and 400 tests in FY2025
  • 319 DPEs conducted less than 50 in FY2025
  • 48 DPEs conducted more than 400 tests in FY2025, with 22 conducting more than 500
  • 264 DPEs (roughly 23%) are covering 52.9% of the tests conducted in the year, which translates to 200 or more practical tests.

To me, that's a reasonably fair workload spread across that limited number of designees.

Let's be clear about something, 200 practical tests in a year is a HUGE number for a person who does not represent the FAA as a designee on a full-time basis. I've had some pretty active years doing checkrides in the last 8 years, to include the COVID period in which my work flying dropped practically to zero. Never cracked 200. I would say 100 is a very full borderline improbable workload for someone who works full-time, whether it's as a pilot or an executive or a tech support person or anything else. And 50 is nothing to sneeze at; that's roughly four practical tests per month, and of course that doesn't count all the checkrides that never start because the applicant or aircraft aren't qualified, or the weather moves in, etc.

Just my perspective, biased obviously. I don't know a DPE out there who doesn't make it a point to try to keep airmen moving through their certification arc. I'm sure there are some outliers, but to every man/woman I know, we certainly do our best.
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Thank you for the update on data.

I disagree, those doing 50/year or less need to go. That’s a 1 per week average. And with 264 covering over 50% of all exams, that’s problematic as well.

Any way you cut it the load doesn’t come close to equaling out. And without parsing those numbers down more, we still have a bunch of free loaders in the system.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Thank you for the update on data.

I disagree, those doing 50/year or less need to go. That’s a 1 per week average. And with 264 covering over 50% of all exams, that’s problematic as well.

Any way you cut it the load doesn’t come close to equaling out. And without parsing those numbers down more, we still have a bunch of free loaders in the system.
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Well, that's the subjective part of the discussion. There's a lot that goes into a designee appointment in terms of selection criteria... I think it's best to get the right combination of experience and wisdom in that role, rather than focusing on their total output. Just my personal view, I know there's lots of perspectives on this.

And one per week is no joke... for people who work 5 days per week (that would be most of us, yes?) That's a weekend day sacrificed each and every week. Designees have kids too...

I am not disagreeing that it can be tough for applicants to schedule a DPE. But I do think we have to be reasonable about what we expect from designees, the vast majority of whom are not "full-timers."
 
Ryan F. said:
Well, that's the subjective part of the discussion. There's a lot that goes into a designee appointment in terms of selection criteria... I think it's best to get the right combination of experience and wisdom in that role, rather than focusing on their total output. Just my person view.
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Of course. But the problem that’s not happening. You still have too many people that only want the designation “because” and do not want to do the work, but feel the designation is a lifetime appointment.

IMO the designation should come with a “term limit”. Once the term is met, someone else needs to fill the role. And of course, bring the minimum exams up to something more realistic to keep the designation.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Of course. But the problem that’s not happening. You still have too many people that only want the designation “because” and do not want to do the work, but feel the designation is a lifetime appointment.

IMO the designation should come with a “term limit”. Once the term is met, someone else needs to fill the role. And of course, bring the minimum exams up to something more realistic to keep the designation.
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Well, if you do an absolute average across all the pilot examiners, assuming the data is accurate, it's right around 137 checkrides per DPE, or about 2.6/week. That's a pretty reasonable average.

If we were able to take your suggestion, force the guys who do 50/yr. to do 100/yr. instead (that's a big ask), the average only increases to 159 checkrides per DPE, or about 3.2 per week instead of 2.6. Again, I want to state that even as a pretty active DPE who has a full-time flying and management job, 100 is a lot.

To me the discussion is more logically centered around increasing the ranks, but that's a tricky problem due to the FAA's need to provide oversight. It's a work in progress.
 
Ryan F. said:
Well, if you do an absolute average across all the pilot examiners, assuming the data is accurate, it's right around 137 checkrides per DPE, or about 2.6/week. That's a pretty reasonable average.

If we were able to take your suggestion, force the guys who do 50/yr. to do 100/yr. instead (that's a big ask), the average only increases to 159 checkrides per DPE, or about 3.2 per week instead of 2.6. Again, I want to state that even as a pretty active DPE who has a full-time flying and management job, 100 is a lot.

To me the discussion is more logically centered around increasing the ranks, but that's a tricky problem due to the FAA's need to provide oversight. It's a work in progress.
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But it’s not an average across the ranks. You still have a lot that barely does enough for currency.

As far as the guys that would squawk about being asked to give 100 rides per year, if their schedule won’t permit it then the designation needs to go to someone that will. It’s that simple. The designation is given to serve a public need, not a trophy for an individual.
 
Doc Holliday said:
But it’s not an average across the ranks. You still have a lot that barely does enough for currency.

As far as the guys that would squawk about being asked to give 100 rides per year, if their schedule won’t permit it then the designation needs to go to someone that will. It’s that simple. The designation is given to serve a public need, not a trophy for an individual.
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We'll have to disagree on that point - to place an arbitrary minimum quota as a requirement for designation would cause all kinds of downstream turbulence in the system. Thank you for the discussion!
 
Doc Holliday said:
The DPE problem is in a nutshell there are too few DPE's willing to perform the task given to them. There are roughly 900 DPE's across the country, but 3/4's of all exams are administered by about 350 of them, and roughly half of all exams are given by 200 of them.

DPE's control their own schedules and charge whatever they want for the service. So you have 100's of DPE's only doing the bare minimum to hold the designation or a little above it.

Now here's the other problem: The majority of DPE's feel their designation is a lifetime appointment. Go try to remove the designation and watch all the indignation erupt. Examiners lawyer up and the fight begins.

IMO more than half of the DPE's need booted out and people designated that want to actually perform the service. Also the min checkride requirements need to be increased and those not meeting the minimums need to be removed. And also IMO I believe the ASI's should start giving more of the checkrides if the applicant request them.
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true, and fsdo wants to revoke those not doing a min, but expectatiom back when most appointed was 3 per month.... but fsdo doesn't have enough oversight inspectors to appoint new to replace them so path of least resistance is doing nothing.
 
AlphaPilotFlyer said:
true, and fsdo wants to revoke those not doing a min, but expectatiom back when most appointed was 3 per month.... but fsdo doesn't have enough oversight inspectors to appoint new to replace them so path of least resistance is doing nothing.
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Not really and I’m not sure where you are getting your info from, but it’s flat out wrong.

As Ryan showed they have increased the ranks in 3 years by another 100 or so. But the problem still lies with the free loaders using their designation as a trophy and the oversight FSDO unwilling to kick them out.
 
Doc Holliday said:
As far as the guys that would squawk about being asked to give 100 rides per year, if their schedule won’t permit it then the designation needs to go to someone that will. It’s that simple. The designation is given to serve a public need, not a trophy for an individual.
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Well that's where you get into a a discussion of "who do you want to be a DPE?"

Do you want DPEs for whom that is their primary source of income? Then, yes, 100 or 200 or whatever is a reasonable quota.

Do you want DPEs to be active pilots outside of being a DPE? If so, then Ryan's 50 or less is a reasonable quota.

There are definitely advantages to both sides, "full time" or "part time".
 
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