Roger Geoffrey Woods

Roger Geoffrey Woods is an active FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, operating under the Philadelphia Flight Standards District Office (FSDO EA-17) since 2017. Woods is a helicopter-only examiner and does not conduct airplane checkrides; his FAA pilot and instructor credentials on record are strictly rotorcraft-based, covering Private, Commercial, Instrument, ATP, and CFI certificates, alongside SFAR 73 qualifications. Outside of his examiner duties, Woods has served as the Chief Flight Instructor and Production Test Pilot at the Leonardo Helicopters Training Academy in Philadelphia since 2012. He represents the manufacturer on the FAA’s Airman Certification Standards Working Group (ACSWG), contributing directly to the modernization of helicopter testing standards from PTS to ACS, and has designed several FAA-Industry Training Standards (FITS) accepted syllabi. Before his civilian work in the United States, Woods spent 24 years as a military pilot in the British Army Air Corps, qualifying as an A2 QFI/QHI. His operational history spans special operations, emergency medical services (EMS), police surveillance, and VVIP charters. Following his military retirement, he trained Royal Saudi Air Force cadets as a fixed-wing instructor for BAE Systems. He has accumulated over 7,500 total flight hours, including more than 2,000 hours of instruction, and holds type experience in the AW189, AW139, AW119, SW4, and A109 series. He is Night Vision Goggles (NVG) qualified and maintains EASA Aeroplane and Helicopter ATPLs with Type Rating Instructor (TRI) status.