Below is a table culled from Table 19, Private Pilot Airplane row, from the year entries for 1999 to 2010 from the FAA web page: http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/
So far as I understand the table statistics, in 2010, 77.2% of applicants for Private Airplane who used a DPE passed their checkride, the other 22.8% were "disapproved" (failed.) Only 67.1% of those using an FAA Inspector passed.
(I'm not sure how applicants who fail and retry are counted - or whether these stats cover only the first exam attempt. For example, suppose only one person tried in a year and failed the first time, but passed the second. For that year 50% of all attempts would have been disapproved. On the other hand, 100% were disapproved on the first attempt. So depending on how the stats are computed, the initial fail rate may be much worse than indicated below.)
An Inspector may initially be free, but it does seem to comes at a price of higher fail rate. I can't help but notice a slight trend toward ever lower pass rates when using a DPE.
So far as I understand the table statistics, in 2010, 77.2% of applicants for Private Airplane who used a DPE passed their checkride, the other 22.8% were "disapproved" (failed.) Only 67.1% of those using an FAA Inspector passed.
(I'm not sure how applicants who fail and retry are counted - or whether these stats cover only the first exam attempt. For example, suppose only one person tried in a year and failed the first time, but passed the second. For that year 50% of all attempts would have been disapproved. On the other hand, 100% were disapproved on the first attempt. So depending on how the stats are computed, the initial fail rate may be much worse than indicated below.)
An Inspector may initially be free, but it does seem to comes at a price of higher fail rate. I can't help but notice a slight trend toward ever lower pass rates when using a DPE.
