Some DPEs advised must meet initial requirements EVERY year or…
It has been brought to the attention of this group that some FSDOs have been notified by their region that examiners must meet the INITIAL DPE EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS every year or a waiver will be required for them to keep their examiner status active. The exact verbage that was given was as follows:
“… In accordance with FAA Order 8900.2, Chapter 2, Page 2-4, Paragraph 3, initial and renewal requirements are based on the designee component chapter (found in Chapter 7, Page 7-6 for Designated Pilot Examiners). These equirements include a minimum of 300 hours PIC in the past year for airplanes and 100 hours PIC in the past year for rotorcraft. FAA Order 8900.2, Chapter 3, Page 3-3, Paragraph 6, Part B further states that in order for a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) to maintain his/her designation, each DPE must maintain the general eligibility requirements found in the designee component chapter.
As a result, each Flight Standards District Office in our Region has been notified to ensure that DPE’s are meeting this requirement. In cases where a DPE does not meet the prerequisite hours for renewal, a waiver may be requested if the DPE has logged a minimum of 60 hours PIC in airplanes (our Regional Office has not provided any specific exceptions for rotorcraft ).
Each waiver application will be reviewed and issued by the Western-Pacific Regional Focal Point.”
Examiners are advised to review the document which can be found at: (http://www.faa.gov/
This group will follow this development as it is certainly a concern that many examiners will not meet the 300 PIC hours requirement in each CLASS (read as multi- and single-engine would be separate requiring a total of 600 hours if dually authorized for test adminstration) of aircraft for which they provide examining every year. There is additional question for intepretation if 100 hours of night is required each year. There is great concern that this will significantly reduce capacity for practical test delivery.
No details were given to indicate on what basis waivers would be approved or disapproved.
If any other examiners have had similar notification please bring it to our attention and help us find more information about this development.