Examiner research, the conservative version

The other half of "am I ready?" is "who is sitting in the right seat?". Until now the only practical answer was what your CFI knew about that DPE — anecdotal, hard to compare, and unevenly distributed. The /dpe directory is checkride.io's answer: an FAA-sourced directory of every active Designated Pilot Examiner, with publicly-cited examiner notes added when a source backs the claim.

What each profile shows

• FAA designee number, location, FSDO, and the ratings the examiner is authorized to administer — straight from the FAA Designee Locator.
• Contact channels the examiner has chosen to publish (website, LinkedIn, email).
• Examiner-emphasis notes drawn from publicly-published material — a DPE's own site, an editorially-reviewed aggregator, or attributed press — with a citation chip linking to the source.
• Notes are grouped by readiness section, so the parts of the checkride this examiner specifically calls out line up with the parts of your packet they’d affect.

What the directory deliberately does not publish

• Per-DPE pass / fail rates. The FAA does not publish them; anything that pretends to is invented.
• Anonymous "gouge". Until a moderation workflow is in place, we will not host an open intake for free-text claims about named individuals.
• Comparative ranking. No "top 10 easiest" lists; no editorial weighting we invent. The directory is alphabetical and geographic — that is the only ordering we think we can defend.
• Personality or appearance commentary. Out of scope, both for defamation reasons and because it attracts the gossip-board failure mode.

Attaching an examiner to your readiness packet

Once the audit engine finishes, the readiness report toolbar has an "Attach examiner ↗" button that takes you to the directory with your packet pre-loaded. Pick the DPE you're scheduled with and any cited examiner notes for them appear under the matching readiness section — both on the one-page DPE summary and on the multi-page detailed report.

The note never overrides a readiness item's status — the FAR floor still owns that. The note only raises the salience of an item the examiner specifically checks, or adds prep guidance for items where the examiner has published a preference.