DPE at Flight School | TheaterFire

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Bunslow@reddit

Very definitely yes. The main limitation is that they also have to accept any other checkride candidate, whether from their school or not.

FAA does a decent job of oversight, and frankly a DPE with a long enough track record can be trusted (mostly).

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sleve-mcdichael242@reddit

It's totally legal and there are many examples of this exact arrangement. At the same time I also believe it's a total conflict of interest and skirts the line of ethics.

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Thomas-Ligotti97@reddit

As someone who went to a part 141 school who had in house check privileges I 100% agree. The amount of leeway you can get if you’ve flown with them before is absurd

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My school had the exact opposite experience. Call it imposter syndrome or Napoleon Complex-adjacent but our in house examiners were even harder on students than real DPEs. Who would have thought a bunch of 20 year old kids had something to prove so early in life?

My school eventually lost their self examining authority because the pass rate was too low!

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Thomas-Ligotti97@reddit

That’s actually crazy. I’ve NEVER heard of that before. Our stage checks are ridiculously hard so it balances out the EOC ‘relaxed’ standards but being hard on the EOC is actually crazy.

I don’t see why they would do that? Unless they’re THAT desperate to milk 2 more flights/grounds out of you

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fallingfaster345@reddit

I was never a stage checker myself so I couldn’t tell ya!

Personally, I don’t know why there’s leeway at all, be it by an in-house CFI or by a DPE. If everyone just followed the ACS standards then this would be a non-issue.

And even then, it’s still only an evaluation of one flight, which doesn’t properly reflect someone’s piloting skills in so many cases. I saw a lot of really great students get removed from the program for having a bad stage check or checkride despite flying wonderfully on regular lessons. Meanwhile, students that repeat every lesson 3 or 4 times because they genuinely struggle, manage to pull it together for a checkride and by some miracle have a perfect record and make it through by the skin of their teeth. I saw it with my own eyes, many times. My confidence in the whole system being worth any actual value is pretty low.

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Thomas-Ligotti97@reddit

I 100% agree. As for the ‘ACS standards’ part. I do think it can always be arguable if it’s borderline failing. Like we had one guy who’d automatically fail someone if they went -/+ 100 ft. HOWEVER the ACS states that the student can correct themselves in a timely manner.

I personally don’t think slight leeway is THAT bad especially if they have a strenuous stage check just prior. (You could argue that this takes away validity of the EOC but)

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fallingfaster345@reddit

I totally agree. Positive and timely corrections are something to be encouraged, absolutely.

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Thomas-Ligotti97@reddit

He had such an atrocious failure rate scheduling would stop giving him checkrides to make him chill.

(Not to mention he also had reports of literally verbally insulting students, not even sure why he was/is employed there)

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sayanonymous4ever@reddit (OP)

I have overheard a conversation, where the DPE passed a student (at their flight school) who scrapped the tail of the plane during takeoff

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bhalter80@reddit

Yes they are they just can't have provided the 3 hours of training

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AcePilot01@reddit

3 hours? can you elaborate?

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bhalter80@reddit

He can't provide the endorsements, so the 3 hours within 2 cal months thing is where he needs to have someone else sign off

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AcePilot01@reddit

But he can provide earlier ones? if it was over 2 months prior?

Imagine scheduling 3 months out because you are busy...

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bhalter80@reddit

He can even do it within 2 months as long as someone else can be the recommending instructor

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AcePilot01@reddit

At this point, just use the DEP that takes the smallest bribe then. /s

Good lord. EVERY FUCKING THING ON THIS PLANET IS CORRUPT.

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sayanonymous4ever@reddit (OP)

Very interesting. Wouldn’t they have every reason to try to pass those students given that’s a KPI prospective students look at before enrolling

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bhalter80@reddit

There is an incentive to charge for retests, there is an expectation that a DPE will have a certain failure rate. There is a question of liability

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AcePilot01@reddit

In my experience in life, not just aviation, but hte bad people outweigh the good. Probably always will.

people who lie cheat or steal will always get a head of those who aren't willing to do so. They say evil prevails if good doesn't act, but what they should say is "Evil prevails" - Nic cage.

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NYPuppers@reddit

that's just the top of the conflict anthill.

- You have an issue with the DPE? You now have an issue with your flight school.

- Delaying your check ride is literally more money in their pocket because you have to stay current and proficient.

- Your instructor is going to be choosing that DPE by default. It hurts new DPEs who need to develop business.

- They will overlook issues with the planes.

- Your flight instructor can't really go to bat for you.

- They may pass you to keep you as a student for the next rating.

IMO most of these guys are not sleazeballs.

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AcePilot01@reddit

yeah, the fact that it's even allowed allows FAR too much of this bs, which easily can be hidden. Or implied.

You know, because of the implication.

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TomToddlesworth@reddit

I took an addon checkride with the owner/DPE at an old flight school at which I was employed as a CFI. Boy that one felt like it shouldn't be allowed. Not that anything untoward happened, but you're totally right that it affects how everyone behaves even if they're not sleazeballs. Which is why competent industries just avoid this sort of thing entirely.

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