As founder and president of the Error Prevention Institute, Jay Hopkins provides safety, quality and effectiveness training to businesses, government agencies, hospitals, police and fire departments, and air medical transport operators throughout the country. His Human Factor column in Flying allows pilots to benefit from his uniquely effective approach to error prevention.
Jay received his BA in social psychology from Lehigh University, and lived in many different parts of the country before settling in Payson, Arizona. When he is not flying around the country doing seminars on Error Prevention, he likes to hike in the mountains around his home, go kayaking or take adventures like riding his bicycle across the country.
Jay has experience in virtually all facets of civil aviation, including line service, aerial photography, glider towing and instruction, along with charter, airline and corporate jet operations. His work training military instructors has given him experience with all branches of the U.S. military as well.
Jay has owned and operated a Part 141 flight school and Part 135 charter service. He served as chief pilot of an international corporate flight department and flew copilot for a commuter airline. Jay has over 5,000 hours of flying time with experience in 45 different types of aircraft, from gliders and Cubs to Metroliners and Learjets. He holds an ATP certificate with type ratings in Learjets and Westwinds, and is a certified instrument flight instructor as well as a commercial glider pilot and instructor.
At FlightSafety International in Tucson, in addition to instructing in the Learjet 35 and 55 simulators, Jay developed and presented the Jet Transition Course and the Learjet 55 Initial Course. He was one of the first instructors hired by SimuFlite Training International, where he was chosen as the first standardization instructor and also served as manager of instructional design.
For several years Jay flew a Turbo Twin Comanche around the country to his training assignments. While he is now back on the airlines, he is still very active in aviation as a mission pilot, instructor and check pilot for the Civil Air Patrol in Arizona, flying a brand new Cessna 182T with a G-1000 glass cockpit.
