DPE PPL price

In 2016 I did my PPL oral and flight in one day. I think it was around 5-6 hours long. If I remember right it was 500 cash. The flight school made arrangements with the DPE.

2 years later I took my instrument oral and flight in one day with a different DPE that I had to call.Took it in my plane.
Same amount of time approximately 6 hours by then it was 600 cash.
I did have to cancel 3 times for weather and wait weeks for another appointment. got signed off for it late August and didn’t take until right before Xmas.
Now it is 800 for a PPL check ride around here.
 
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StraightnLevel said:
I think that the bolded is clear from the evidence.

Just to put things in perspective with a factoid, here’s a statement that is on the website of one of our local DPEs here in the Houston area. Today is August 5, and while I don‘t know how long ago this statement was published, it makes it clear that at least this DPE is booked out 8 weeks already and won’t even accept calls for new booking until middle of September - about 6 weeks from today:



From what I’m hearing in Wisconsin, I may well be able to get my checkride complete up there before I can even get a DPE to take my call here in Houston, much less get the practical exam scheduled and completed. This is not to impugn the DPE himself; he can only do as many checkrides as time will permit, so it’s not a problem of his making. In fact, I think it's commendable that he is making his situation completely clear up front and in public, so that applicants won't get frustrated and think he's just ignoring them.

It's quite clear, though, that the FAA has not hired/approved/trained/retained enough DPEs to line up with the requirements in the area. That makes it tough on the DPEs who are trying to get the job done, and tough on the applicants who get stuck in the process.
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There’s a couple issues going on right now. It’s California circa 1849 and everyone is chasing the big money from the pilot shortage. DPEs that can hold a medical and meet age requirements are going 121; the older ones are backfilling in 135 ops with more work than they know what to do with. FAA inspectors are leaving for regions with Direct Hire Captains netting $200k bonuses. Without inspectors there’s no one to manage the DPEs, so positions go unfilled. All the while, everyone and dog have signed up for professional pilot programs and are training for certificates and ratings, chasing these lucrative and an available pilot jobs.

So we’ve got high demand and low supply with predictable results.
 
Back in 2021, the DPE ARC suggested allowing segmented practical tests.
DesertNomad said:
What it the thought process of the FAA forcing the oral and practical on the same day? In the summer, by the time the oral is done, the density altitude is too high to fly.
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Back in 2021, the DPE ARC suggested allowing segmented practical tests.


The FAA responded that the practical test is a unified event, but acknowledged thst the integrity of the test is not compromised if it is held over multiple days.


I think the ultimate issue is that it creates a messy framework for scheduling and oversight, that will make it nearly impossible for any exams to be held on a single day, as DPEs won’t want to wast good weather days with oral exams. Not to mention it has some practical oversight issues such as making FAA observation more difficult if the inspector must make multiple trips for one single observation.
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
It's been a long, long time, but I did the CFI oral on a day when we knew well in advance that we could not fly.
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Wasn't that long ago for me and we did the same thing. Weather was....questionable :lol:
 
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