Most pilots haven’t given much thought to the requirements that the examiner must meet in order to qualify as a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). However, recent changes to the PIC requirements for examiners may have a direct impact on pilots trying to schedule a check ride.
Historically, experience requirements for PIC qualifications for examiners were not stringently applied or were unclear. A little over a year ago, interpretation of verbiage in the FAA Order 8900.2 resulted in the belief that in order to remain an examiner, an examiner must have at least 300 hours of PIC flight time within the preceding year in each category and class of aircraft for which he holds examining authority — think 300 hours in single-engine, 300 more hours in a multiengine, and perhaps additionally 300 more hours in a rotorcraft if an examiner was so qualified as to be a multiengine, single-engine and rotorcraft examiner, for a total of 900 hours PIC time each year. Keep in mind that the time that an examiner spends conducting practical tests does not count toward these numbers. Accumulating these hours on a yearly basis can be very difficult for many examiners to meet, and if they did, would probably result in them not having any extra available time to actually conduct practical tests. Fortunately, a re-interpretation and revised qualification requirements were issued in the FAA Order 8900.2A that was released last week.
