and a brief return to Schools Having Their Own Examiner
a little anecdote to prove that on-staff examiner probably an OK way to go:
Background: In 1999, when the first-time-pass rate for ALL CFI candidates in Orlando, FL FSDO jurisdiction was about 85% (in the ballpark of what FAA likes to see), the Orlando office decided the quality of instruction being administered was not as good as they would like.
(Sampling instructional quality is done by the occasional FAA-inspector retest of recent student graduates, and of pilots involved in incidents/accidents where pilot error is major factor.)
Main Event: So Orlando SUSPENDED all initial CFI issuances by Designated Pilot Examiners (the non-FAA-inspector examiners at schools & independent). All (Orlando Area, or most of Florida) initial CFI practical tests were performed by FAA inspectors.
Punch Line: The first-time-pass-rate for initial CFI tests DROPPED from 85% to 40%!!!
Conclusion: (drawn by everybody) was that the Designees had been being too easy on candidates. Which suggests that the school-employed examiners were giving easy tests to CFI's (and, by extension, their other graduates).
That was 3 years ago. I have no data, but the implication is that everybody now gives about the same level of challenge in practical tests, the Designated Examiners having been rapped on the knuckles by implication.