The number of Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs) is inching up and chipping away at the flight test backlog, but a small minority of DPEs do most of the testing according to a report by the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA). In a report released on Monday, the FSANA said the number of active DPEs rose by 87 from 1,035 in 2024 to 1,122 in 2025, but some of those DPEs are a lot busier than others. “Despite growth in the overall DPE population, FSANA emphasizes that over 28% of DPEs averaged fewer than one test per week, indicating an uneven distribution of testing demand and available examiner capacity,” the group said in a news release.
The 1,122 DPEs did a total of 153,967 practical tests from October of 2024 to the end of September in 2025, up from 129,000 in 2023 and 140,000 in 2024. That’s an average of 137 tests a year, but individual DPE activity varied widely. There were 22 DPEs who did more than 500 tests last year while 319 did fewer than 50 tests in the whole year. The group said 23% of DPEs did 52.9% of tests.
The rise of DPEs is the privatization of the flight test standards is the dream of republicans. By moving our tax dollars from the FAA and instead of federal employees to do the work, we get privatization and DPEs. This moves the cost directly to the user meanwhile our little people taxes stays the same or if not more.
I never paid for a rating, up through ATP, until 2020 when I got a Sport Pilot Gyroplane rating. Every other was by an FAA examiner at no charge.
That world doesn’t exist anymore, and hasn’t for years. Even two years ago the price of a written doubled to almost $200, and there’s no competition. Combined test fees are a minimum of $700 for glider pilots and easily go over a thousand for everyone else. That’s a lot of hours of flight time which goes from learners’ pockets into DPE and test center hands.
You are obviously very new to our community, and that is okay! Privately appointed DPEs have been a thing for decades, not a ‘republican dream’ as you assert. Never have I done a check ride (outside of my time in the military) with an FAA-employed DPE, and I have been operating aircraft all over the country (and the world) since 1996. Not many exist. Same with Designated Medical Examiners and Designated Mechanic Examiners. In fact, I’ve never seen any of those two types employed by the FAA. It is, however, a little more of a mixed bag with Designated Airworthiness Representatives & Designated Engineering Representatives. You actually see several FAA-employed DARs/DERs but again, the majority are independently appointed.
500 tests would make a tidy sum.