Is there really a DPE shortage?
Or are CFIs just making a lot of mistakes?
That’s a question the flight training community is wrestling with right now.
According to officials with the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) aviation is “suffering from an epidemic of flight test applicants failing to even qualify for their flight tests — they never even get started.”
During a meeting of Designated Pilot Examiners (DPE) and FAA personnel at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022, it was estimated that one-fifth of applicants never even qualify to start their FAA flight tests due to incorrect endorsements or inadequate pilot experience.
These CFI errors waste applicants’ time and money while also squandering scarce DPE appointments, SAFE officials noted.
That led SAFE officials to develop a set of tools to “help solve this wasteful problem.”
The tools are free to all aviation educators — you don’t have to be a member of SAFE to use them.
SAFE has created “All-In-One” templates for common check rides. These formatted pdf documents, which are on the SAFE website and also on the free SAFE Toolkit App, list all required pilot experience in checklist format. They also provide the required pilot endorsements for common flight tests.
