6 months ago, yes… I’ve had a string of DPE / Zoom contacts over the past year and each time I passed one on to someone, the next person reported the contact as dead.
That FAA letter above from Mr Roholt has all the hallmarks of the NY IFO which is basically a renegade offshoot of the FAA and which has over the years had all kinds of oddball people working there, writing oddball letters which, let’s say, don’t quite hang together as a position statement of the FAA. The FAA is not interested in what happens there; it’s regarded as a distant outpost in the galaxy.
But, this gets even more interesting in light of this. That in turn suggests that the NY IFO no longer has anybody in Europe on whose behalf it would need to write such a letter.
Something weird is going on… looks like either Mr Roholt is out of date by around a year, or Mr Hughston is operating again somewhere and has not cleaned up his old websites. His previous ones rnav.us and flyafts.com are dead, however, although rnav.us is paid up.
From here
No more 61.75 piggyback licenses outside the UK, too.
I don’t know whether Peter is saying it is the end for anyone getting a 61.75 piggyback license if they are outside the USA; or whether he is saying they are still available if one lives in the U.K.
For the record, I know of two people within the U.K. who have obtained piggyback licenses via Zoom within the last six months. They used this method to avoid the horrendous ‘administrative costs’ charged by the two DPE’s then operating in the U.K.
Whether this route will also be curtailed by the FAA in the near future, if/when they hear of it, remains to be seen.
May I ask anyone who knows anyone who can do this over zoom to
Why this secrecy?
Because there are powerful interests going around and killing off this option. Another one got killed off 2 days ago.
One cannot completely prevent an impostor collecting DPE details for the purpose of terminating their business, but if somebody has been on EuroGA for some time, that’s a pretty good assurance. If in doubt, ask me; I can see when somebody joined up 
Before I supply any details I ask for their absolute assurance that they won’t pass it on, and stress that if they do, the guy will prob99 get terminated – FWIW.
And predictably Sarah Rovner (above link) has stopped doing the 61.75 over zoom. It was a really dumb move to publish her name in a magazine.
A German magazine has reported (google translation) that attempts have been made to block the zoom option, to protect the revenue of the existing European based DPEs.
The article is strange. It states
Unfortunately, a complaint has been lodged against this procedure, so that it is no longer possible for the time being.
but then it goes on to give details of a DPE who is sure to get flooded with applications and probably made target of direct attacks by those wanting to block it.
I took a commercial flight to East Midlands last week and obtained DPE service from Adam House with no fuss, all the paperwork had been verified in advance. It was just nice to chat with someone who had all the experience and big picture take on GA.
Once the DPE has your documents they become government property, they go in a diplomatic bag and over to the USA on a CIA jet
The zoom option is still working. Someone I know has just done it.
Please, don’t ask me for the DPE’s details unless you actually participate on EuroGA And I am not going to give it to anyone who looks like they will post it somewhere, because that will blow the route for those who genuinely need it.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Does this option actually give you an FAA IR independent of the underlaying ICAO IR?
The requirement is that the foreign licence has not expired or been surrendered, suspended, or revoked. The ratings included in a restricted US commercial or private pilot certificate must be maintained iaw Part 61. The Office of the Chief Counsel can tell you whether it deems the expiration of a foreign rating relevant for the purpose of 14 CFR 61.2(a)(4).
Peter wrote:
To get the FAA IR, you have these options:
In addition to those a Canadian licence can be converted together with any included ratings to the standard US equivalent. That conversion does not require any US practical test. The flight tests for Canadian licences and ratings are simpler than the corresponding tests under the US or UK/EASA systems. As a bonus Transport Canada will issue a multi-engine land class rating, without a flight test, to any applicant who acquired the foreign equivalent within the preceding 12 months.
