Tales from the Frontlines

The Kilroy Aviation Blog

Welcome to Tales from the Frontlines - the Kilroy Aviation Blog, where we will update our friends and followers on Kilroy activities, current affairs, opinions and whatever strikes our fancy, or maybe yours. Kilroy Aviation is owned and operated by Erich Hopkins, Nick Olmsted and Mike Borfitz. We formalized our company as “Kilroy Aviation, LLC”, a Delaware company, on March 28, 2018 and applied to the FAA for our ODA on June 5, 2018. We expect to receive our ODA authorization by the end of this year.  

Our daily activities are framed by two simple words: “Performance and Integrity”, meaning we bring the full weight of our knowledge and experience to every project (Performance). We tell on ourselves if there are any mistakes or errors (Integrity), then immediately correct them, roll the results into our daily activities and monitor changes for effectiveness. The loop is then closed and we return to Performance.

We have over 70 combined years of FAA certification experience among the three of us. Our greatest strength is based on that, and we’re not bragging to say we are the best there is. Our experience has shown us that every step, every decision in a certification project leads to several options, then after selecting the best option for that project, we’re confronted by more options, and so on. Our job is to assist our clients with those decisions; we have witnessed inexperienced project managers making decisions that created higher costs and frustrating schedule shifts. 

THIS is why every project needs experienced guides like we offer at Kilroy Aviation. We’ve seen far too many future clients find themselves where the dragons lurk. In the same way the ancient maps declared Hic Sunt Dracones, or HERE BE DRAGONS, not all projects survive on their own, without skilled guides. And we stand ready to help. Call us.

 

Derek Hopkins Derek Hopkins

The Future of FAA Type Certification

I am honored to co-chair the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Type Certification Task Force with Nick Lappos of Lockheed Martin. Nick and I will meet at the AIAA Aviation Forum & Exposition in San Diego the week of June 12

My Kilroy Aviation partners, Erich Hopkins & Nick Olmsted, joined me to generate the following thoughts on where Type Certification is, where we believe it should be, and how we might get there. "Future of Type Certification - Challenges and Visions" is a working document intended to generate dialogue. We fully expect it to be very different after the Task Force dives in.

Feedback is encouraged. My partners and I have very diverse backgrounds and nobody holds back on his opinions. We ask you to feel free to do the same.

Mike Borfitz, CEO, Kilroy Aviation

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Derek Hopkins Derek Hopkins

The Public Perception of Safety

NOTE: This article was written a few years ago. Some details reflect the time it was written, but the message and concepts remain unchanged.

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Here Be Dragons
Derek Hopkins Derek Hopkins

Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons…. but Kilroy has already been there, done that.

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