The Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) brought together DPEs and flight training industry members in Phoenix this week for a second annual Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Symposium. In an effort to help spread more communication between DPEs, from DPEs and flight training operations to each other, and to improve recruitment of future DPEs, symposium content included updates from FAA staff working with practical testing and DPEs, fellow DPEs on best practices, and some data from FSANA on trends in practical test provisioning.
One of the concerns discussed at the symposium was the continued backlog of practical tests. FSANA recently completed a survey of DPEs and training industry participants, the results of which indicated that 77 percent of respondents reported a need to wait more than 2 weeks to get a practical test scheduled. A full 38 percent said that a wait time of more than a month was needed. When considering initial CFI practical tests, 83 percent indicated a need to wait more than 2 weeks. Scheduling waits for a retest in the event an applicant received a disapproval notice on their first attempt at the practical test was similarly delayed, according to the survey data.
