First 6 Months as a DPE

Hello and welcome back to my first post in a long time…many changes, all exciting but most of all I now have the honor of serving the Chicagoland area as a DPE. I hope to use this blog to answer any questions the pilot community might have about FAA exams and highlight common issues I am seeing on exams to help better prepare applicants.

Currently, I am only authorized for Private Pilot exams and I am hoping to add Instrument and Commercial soon, all in ASEL. I’ve done a handful of checkrides in 6 months and so far I’d say the most common theme during disapprovals is rushing. Many applicants feel the need to get the exam done a certain day or have external pressures that cloud their judgement. This typically will trickle into poor decision making during the flight portion of the exam. Checkrides are inherently stressful…there is no need to put more pressure on yourself by giving yourself a deadline or by electing to go fly when the conditions are below your experience level/personal minimums.

In terms of any specific maneuvers that I see issues with the most common would be forward slips to land. I direct anyone with questions to reference the FAA AFH (Airplane Flying Handbook) 9-13 to 9-15 which explains the maneuver. Many applicants are beginning this maneuver at 95+ knots which makes it impossible for them to slow down and in a real life forward slip to a short runway, would cause them to go off the departure end of the runway.

Feel free to email questions to mo@flywithmo.com and I will try my best to answer them in a Q&A.

For now, blue skies & tail winds!