Cost of Checkrides
 

I really suck at finding what I need using the search function, so if I missed this topic, my apologies...

I am ready to take my CFI checkride, and I wanted to have it done by a FSDO examiner (free is a lot cheaper than not free...). Unfortunately, the SLC FSDO can't get me in for 5-6 months, so I'll have to go with someone else; my question is what is an average price for a checkride, or is there one set fee? My instructor has someone that I can go to, but she charges $550, which seems a little steep to me. The last time I paid for a checkride, it was something like $300...

Damn, $550 better get you a pass too. I paid $350 for a CFI-I, my initial was through my college, so it was a lump fee. So anything more than $400 is out of line IMO

Yeah, all the guys in Tennessee are $300. When I started it was only $275.

that is about right. in SoCal you will plan on spending around 600 for an initial cfi if it is not with the fsdo and between 400 and 450 for any other checkride. Here in MA checkrides go for 350 and I am not sure about initials

Paid $200 for my private back in '99, $450 for my IFR and $350 each for Comm and Multi engine. The guy who charged $450 failed me purposly on a maint. logbook issue and asked that I pay $250 for the next checkride. Thing is, we never even took a check ride!! I told him to shove it where the sun don't shine, wrote a letter to the FAA about his poor conduct/bad temper and took it with another DE, who only charged me $200. I better stop before I start venting on this experience.

DE's are suppose to charge "a reasonable and fair amount" for a checkride. I know DEs are only allowed 2 checkrides a day but still, anything over $300 is absolute highway robbery.

By the way, don't you have to take your CFI initial with the FAA anyway? I know in Florida you can take it with a DE but California I'm not so sure of.

the only way you can take a initial cfi with anyone other than the fsdo is with a waiver number and the only way you are getting a waiver number is if the fsdo can not accomodate you within 30 days for the checkride. Some fsdos have more than enough inspectors that are able to get the checkrides done and that means you ARE riding with the fsdo others for example riverside county in CA do not have many at all so they wil give you a waiver number and the name of a dpe you can do the ride with.

one last exception, some schools have examining authority on initial cfi but I only know of a few and I am not sure how it works out. but DCA in MA has that authority

Ok, I see now. That makes sense. Maybe I'll luck out and get a decent DE.

A DPE in OK for the CFI Initial goes for 550, and a re-check for 275:( OK only has one DPE who is allowed to do CFIs that I know of, and her failure rate is the same 80+% that the OK FSDO has......I know what line of work I'm getting into when I "retire." A few checkrides a week in the tax free cash form that they all love must make a nice supplement.

I think $550 for a checkride is sick. The most I have paid for a checkride was $300 and that was for my Com MEL. I think ever other checkride I've had was $250... That said I would look for someone else who can do it.

I'm not presumptuous enough to start an argument with someone I don't know and who very well could have years more experience than I do, but as far as I understood the SLC FSDO guy I talked to today, that's not the case here in UT (unless the exception you mentioned is just accepted as the rule here). He indicated to me that there are five DPEs who do all of the initial checkrides for the FSDO, and there is realistically zero chance of going with a FSDO guy...ever. He didn't mention anything about a waiver number, either. Maybe I didn't understand something.

I'd really like to fly up to Boise to do the checkride, but by the time I do that, take the checkride, and come back, I might as well just pay the $550 down here. Oh well...I'd just better be one of the 25% (according to the FSDO station manager here) who pass on the first try. I don't want to end up forking out $700-$800 for this thing.