Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
It's not undercover or a clandestine operation, most likely it was discovered through this. The Designee Management System (DMS) is a new computer system, but the policy below from the order is what's been in place for years. The policy was put in place due to previous incidents of DPEs not conducting tests.
FAA Order 8000.95 CHG 5:
This is a required action for ASIs overseeing DPEs. This is conjecture, but it's likely that one of the recently tested persons decided to be honest and further investigation showed that the guy was handing out certificates/ratings without testing.
I did not know about that process for interviewing recent certificated applicants.
I was not suggesting that the CURRENT process was 'undercover', but that maybe such a program would be needed to check for complete evaluations.
Now that you point out the process in use - and one that obviously still relies on the truthfulness of the applicant - I wonder if anything will change. Doubtful. Like you know - this is not the first time this has happened. Do the ASIs get any type of debrief about such occurrences? Does a letter go out explaining what happened in detail, how it was brought to light. I'd be interested to know, but some would probably say that if the information was put out, unscrupulous ASIs/DPEs would use that as a learning tool on how to beat the system.
I wish there was some way to trust the offender and get a more accurate list of who he might have not given a proper checkride too instead of just saying every checkride for the last XX number of years. This one went one for quite some time. I also personally hope this guy gets in A LOT of trouble. The FAA won't be sued in this case IMO, but I wonder if he could personally when conducting checks as a DPE at least for any expenses incurred as a such to individuals having to retest (or lost wages). Can there be a Class Action lawsuit against a individual?