Wallace James Pitts DPE Checkride Gouges
Designated Pilot Examiner
Preparing for an FAA checkride with Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Wallace James Pitts? GougeHub has 2 first-hand Wallace James Pitts checkride gouge reports from pilots who tested. Review oral exam questions, flight test patterns, and examiner insights for CFII and PPL checkrides.
↓ View 2 available gouge reportsWallace James Pitts, called Wally by those who fly with him, examines out of Arlington (GKY). One CFII applicant described him as a phenomenal DPE who states from the start that he wants a successful outcome. He tests your knowledge, but he uses gaps as learning moments rather than reasons to fail you. If you know your material, this is a relaxed and friendly checkride.
For the CFII ground, he had the applicant teach a lesson on cross country flight planning. They walked through the whole topic together over about 1.5 hours. He dug into 91.103 and the NWKRAFT preflight action checklist. He asked what sources of weather a pilot may use for a flight.
He then pulled up FAA-safety.gov and worked through the answer with the applicant. The point he wanted made: a PIC can use any weather source he deems appropriate. That includes a TV station, a newspaper, or ForeFlight. The applicant said he learned a lot in that single ground session.
The flight ran about 1.4 hours and the applicant found it straightforward. They flew an LPV approach, an LNAV approach, then a LOC circle to land. He also asked for steep turns under the foggles and magnetic compass turns. The applicant had no complaints and rated the whole experience 10 out of 10.
Two reports are on file. The CFII gouge is detailed and positive, with concrete oral and flight notes. The second report is a Private Pilot note that shares personality and structure impressions but no specific oral topics or surprise questions. If you fly with Wally for your CFII, prepare to teach cross country planning, know your preflight regs cold, and be sharp on approaches and compass turns.
Analyzed across 113 site-wide Private Pilot checkrides in the GougeHub database, the same questions keep coming up. Here’s one of the 37 in the guide:
“Explain how you would read this METAR. (Examiner presents a sample METAR.)”
📋 Examiner Insight: A very common question — almost every examiner asks it.
⚠ Common Pitfall: They may ask you to decode the trailing digits of an AWOS group like T00640036. That’s tricky — it isn’t under METAR decoding in AIM 7-1-28. It lives in a separate section, AIM 7-1-10, Figure 7-1-9 (ASOS/AWOS Decode) — the only place you’ll find it.
All 37 questions, ranked by frequency, with Examiner Insights and Common Pitfalls from 113 real checkrides — written and reviewed by Andrew Gray, CFI-II.
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Ratings & Checkride Types
- CFII (Instrument Flight Instructor)
- PPL (Private Pilot)
Other DPEs in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Transparency Disclaimer: This page summarizes patterns reported by applicants. It is not an endorsement, prediction, or guarantee of checkride outcome. Every checkride varies based on the applicant and circumstances.