Randy became an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner for helicopters after attending a five-day academy in Oklahoma City. You need a CFI certificate in rotorcraft, five hours in each aircraft type, and the FAA picks applicants from your district. He's authorized to give checkrides in Bell 206s, Bell 407s, Airbus single-engine turbines, and several other models.
Questions this video answers
Five days in Oklahoma City.
Five hours in the make and model (not necessarily instruction hours).
randyweethelicopters.com
574-238-1000
Chapters
See what you think.
All right.
Welcome back to Hogg's daily flight brief. Today we're gonna let Randy tell you about his experience leading up to becoming a dpe. We told you yesterday about our past with helicopters and how it's an interesting part of all of our history here. How did you end up being a dpe? And what is the dpe?
A DPE is a designated pilot examiner, and that's basically a designee from the faa. Okay, so I' an employee of the faa, but rather a designee. So one of the qualifications, they are looking for individuals that have a minimum of a cfi, and in this case it would be Rotorcraft. And if you happen to have an ATP, then that's just an advantage. So how do you get to be a DPE is that you have to submit an application to the office out in Oklahoma City. Okay. And then once you've done that, that remains on file. And then the that you're in. And in the case here, it would be the Grand Rapids district. They will call Oklahoma and say, hey, send us the top three applicants that you have on file for that particular district. Okay. So in that case, they. They called Oklahoma City and they sent a three back to. Well, back then it was the South Bend Fisdow, which has since consolidated, and now it's part of the Grand Rapids Fisdo. But nonetheless, it was an appointed position. So I was appointed to be a DPE for Hill Helicopters, the rotorcraft here within the district. And I had to go out to the academy for five days in Oklahoma City, where they teach you everything on how to conduct a practical test. And they want it to be in such a manner that if you go to this DPE in Toledo versus myself or maybe somebody over in Chicago, that we all do it the same way. We have a checklist. We have what they call a plan of action, and that has to be approved by the district. And they want to make sure that we're all doing the test the same exact way on the plan of action, which in our case is still the pts. As you know, the airplanes are now using acs, but helicopters are still just a little bit behind, and we still follow the practical test standards.
How long do you think we've been hearing this? For years. Any word on when it's actually going to happen?
A friend of mine up at the Grand Rapids Fisdo, Jason, he's really in contact. And two years ago he said, I think we can expect rotorcraft in two years. So they keep pushing it back. We have since reached that deadline, my guess is ACS for rotorcraft. I bet we're still two years away.
Okay.
All right, so that's good, that's good, that's good to know.
Yeah. Yep. So we still have to follow the pts. Okay. Yep.
So add whatever you want, but I also want you to tell anybody watching the video all the different aircraft that now you're qualified in to teach and let us know how can they get ahold of you if they want to travel to Northern Indiana to do a checkride?
Yeah, that's a good question. So as a dpe, we have to have. We have to list the aircraft that we're qualified in. In order to be qualified, you have to have five hours in make and model. And not necessarily five hours of instruction, just five hours in make and model. So in my case, I can do The Capris, the G2s, I can do all of the instrument helicopters. I can do a lot of the Airbus helicopters, the single engine turbines, for the most part. The Bell 206s, the Bell 407 is also on my certificate of authority. That's what they call it, the coa. And that's listed on my authorization to do checkrides.
Awesome.
So if you want to get a hold of me, it's randyweethelicopters.com or my cell number if you want. It's 574-238-1000.
There you go. You know how to get a hold of him. What else do we want to add?
Question.
Question.
Yeah, question that Chris jumped in.
Yeah. Get in here.
I know you're. I knew I could feel it behind me. I'm like. I could just feel as I feel it. Hey, I'm not talking in these videos. I gotta talk. Right? I want to hear my V. You're part of it.
Right.
So you mentioned something about you have to submit an application.
You do?
Okay, so how would. Past that, how would someone like me move forward from that? Like, do I have to have a certain number of hours? You mentioned a CFI, so yes, brand new CFI with 300 hours via DPE. Not quite requirements there.
There are. So you can go to faa.gov okay. And just look for the links as to what it takes to become a designated pilot examiner. And they have all the requirements there. So. Nope. If you're a brand new cfi, you're pro going to have to wait a while. But they're looking for X number of hours of hours given as a cfi. How long have you been doing it? How current are you and if you meet those qualifications, send that application. They will keep it on file in Oklahoma City, I believe. I think it's five years. They'll keep it. And as that district needs DPEs, they have to go to Oklahoma City to ask for that.
My next kind of follow up. I remember when you were applying, one of the things that you told me was that there has to be a need. There has to be a need in this area. And you mentioned you're a designated pilot examiner for the faa. So if I wanted to take a check ride in a helicopter, I could do it with the faa.
You can, right? Yes, yes.
But the FAA doesn't have as many helicopter inspectors, I guess, as airplanes do. So that's why a lot of helicopter guys go to DPE because.
Right, right. And more and more district offices, FSDO offices are assigning the checkrides to DPEs. You know, chances are you'd have to take your checkride with an FAA inspector like I had to back in the early 80s. But nowadays it's about a 95% chance you'll be doing it with the DPE.
You want to add anything else before we move on to the next video for tomorrow? We're going to Talk about the EC130 and what you guys do at suite. Anything you want to add.
I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Okay, top 10 checkride tips. Hold it up the right way down below. Free PDF or we will ship this to you anywhere in the world for just seven bucks. Shipping and handling. And we're getting ready to do The Examiner Top 10 peeves. Pet peeves. And we're going to have some fun while we're out flying in the 130 and see how Randy's top 10 pet peeves came out as far as in relating to the top 10 checkride tips that Taz and I put together. So subscribe to the channel, click the bell so you'll be notified of tomorrow's video where Chris and Randy both are going to talk about the EC130 and the other aircraft they have in their fleet and what they do as charter pilots. So like subscribe and we'll see you tomorrow. Try to put in some of the Chris acting goofy, right? Because he's the perfect comedy relief.
