Designated Pilot Examiners (DPE) have a crucial role in the process of pilot certification. They serve as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) representatives, responsible for evaluating potential pilots. DPEs act as the last line of defense in granting a pilot’s license and entrusting individuals with the responsibility of safeguarding the lives of 300-400 passengers during flights. Consequently, their role is of utmost importance in guaranteeing the safety of air travel by carefully evaluating pilots against the required standards and skills.
The frequently posed question is, “Is there truly a DPE shortage in the aviation industry?”
We will take a shot at answering this question.
According to the FAA, around 137,000 pilot and flight instructor certifications were awarded by examiners in 2023, including both original and additional ratings. Now, approximately 20% of checkrides result in disapproval or discontinuance, therefore the predicted number of checkrides in 2023 will exceed the number of airmen certificates awarded. However, for the purposes of this analysis, we may continue with the conservative estimate of 137,000. Out of these checkrides, 97% are in the airplane category (134,000), rest includes rotorcraft, glider etc.
Furthermore, the AOPA database has over 2000 flight schools, of which around 1450 offer Airplane category certifications.
Looking at the FAA DPE locator tab, https://designee.faa.gov/designeeLocator, we see 1,426 DPEs.
So, using simple math, each DPE may do 96 checkrides per year (less than two per week) with no problems. Or one DPE can cover one to two flight schools, and we’re good. There is no lack of DPEs. Correct?
However, as with most analyses, the devil is in the details. Let’s peel the layers step by step.
Step1: Is the FAA DPE locator showing right counts?
It appears that the FAA locator is experiencing a technical issue. When a DPE changes their address, instead of updating their database record, the system just inserts a duplicate of the original.
Is this glitch really a problem?
The longer someone holds the DPE title, the more likely it is that the individual will migrate or change their address. As a result, the database has numerous records for some of the most senior (by tenure) DPEs.
There are 22 DPEs whose records appear five times in the system; an interesting term to learn here is quintuplicated records. If its hard to believe, do a designee search with last name ‘Gwinn’ and you will see Michael Gwinn from WV show up 5 times. Or do a lastname search on Teerlink and you will get 5 results for ‘Craig Nicholas Teerlink’ from UT.
In the same way, the FAA database has 99 distinct DPEs whose records are triplicated, meaning they appear three times. So, what’s the bottom line here? The bottom is out of 1,426 records showing up, there are 983 genuine records i.e. DPEs available.
Step2: Are all DPEs active and currently conducting checkrides?
Generally speaking, the response is yes. However, there are 25 DPEs who currently holds an administrative examiner designation only i.e. non-flying designations of FPR, GIE, RPE, FIRE, MCE. A large number of these 25 DPEs appear to be on leave from flying for personal reasons. Once the situation is handled, they can regain their flight check privileges.
Few DPEs in this category involve Timothy Tucker from CA, Lamar Childs from FL.
As of right now, there are just 958 active DPES after removing these 25 DPEs.
Step3: Do all DPEs conduct career pilot candidates’ checkride?
Further scrutiny reveals that not all DPEs cater to the general applicant pool. Some specialize in vintage aircraft, experimental models, or specific light jet aircraft types, limiting their involvement with mainstream flight training programs. Few examples include:
Bradley Michael Pace in NM: Authorized for VFEE-TJET (vintage Turbojet) only
Lonny Kay Mcclung in AZ: Authorized for DPE-PPE-EA-500 only (specific aircraft jet)
We see 33 such DPEs. Considering their extremely specific and targeted focus, it would be acceptable to remove these DPEs from the broader DPE population.
This leaves us with 925 DPEs available of general applicants and flight schools.
Step4: How about the picture for the largest category – Airplanes?
As mentioned above, 97% of the checkrides are conducted in Airplane category only. So, looking at the database, we can exclude DPEs who are not authorized to conduct checkrides for Airplane category.
Out of the 925 DPEs from previous step, we find:
82 DPEs are authorized for Rotorcraft Category only (no airplane)
15 DPEs cater to Gliders only
11 DPEs cater to LTAB i.e. Balloon category only
9 DPEs cater to Sports pilot rating only
As a result, we now have 808 DPEs that cater to airplane (Private, Commercial, and ATP) ratings for single and multiengine aircraft on land and sea. Another wrinkle here is that many of these 808 DPEs are also permitted for rotorcraft, limiting their availability for airplanes, but we’ll leave that aside for the time being.
Step 5: Are DPEs available Fulltime for checkrides?
According to industry experts, approximately 30-40% of designees hold additional employment such as airline captains, charter pilots, or air force reserves. Due to their busy schedules, many of these designees only conduct checkrides a few days per month. This information can be found on DPE’s websites or their Linkedin profiles.
Taking this 30% figure into account, we are left with approximately 560 designees available full-time to handle the majority of airplane checkrides.
Continuing this further:
Step 6: Are all DPEs available for more than 1 flight schools?
This is where we get to the next level of intricacy, which exacerbates the problem of applicants having to wait months for their checkrides. There are DPEs who work as in-house DPEs for specific flight schools, and there are just a few DPEs that run their own flying schools. It is reasonable to assume that this category contains approximately 20% of the remaining DPEs.
Accounting for this we can see there are less than 450 DPE for airplane category nationwide who are available full time and cater to multiple flight schools.
So, returning to our original question, is there a true DPE shortage causing major delays in checkride scheduling timelines?
The answer is ‘not really’. It is a component of the problem, but not the only or primary one.
The primary issues that exist today are the outmoded methods of scheduling and organizing checkrides, as well as the inefficiencies that occur throughout the process. In the age of artificial intelligence, the checkride scheduling mechanism is 30 years behind. The total procedure seems primitive and far from optimized. There should be no need for manual text messages, phone calls, or follow-ups when scheduling checkrides. Usually, if the checkride cancels at the last minute, there is no backup plan.
We will expand on this and discuss the crux of the problem in part 2 of this article. So, stay tuned!
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This is an excellent article