Who is Kevin Horton?

I suspect that not many of you are too interested in who I am, but just in case you are, here goes.

I grew up on a farm near the small town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Yarmouth had about 10,000 people, and was the biggest town for 200 miles.

I was introduced to flying at an early age, as there was an 800 ft grass airstrip on our farm. I have fond memories of the frequent rides in the Piper Cubs that were based there.

In 1982 I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the Royal Military College at Kingston, Ontario, then did my Canadian Forces flight training at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. After receiving my wings, I flew CP-121 (aka S-2) Trackers for four years doing maritime patrol off of Canada's east coast.

After flying Trackers, I was looking for something a bit more technically interesting so applied to go to test pilot school. If want to know more about what a test pilot is, and what he does, see Test Pilot Stuff, by Eric Volstad. If I got selected, I expected to go to one of the US military test pilot schools, or maybe the Empire Test Pilot School in England, but I was floored when they said that I going to EPNER, the French test pilot school.

I spent a year learning all about flight testing and got to fly a great mix of aircraft. Everything from sailplanes to several types of Mirage fighters to Airbus airliners. After a year on the Mediterranean, it was hard to move to Cold Lake, Alberta to join the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment.

After six years doing military flight testing, the military thought I was due for several years of desk jobs, but I had other ideas. I left the military to become a certification test pilot with Transport Canada. Now I can fly until I am ready to retire, and the next move will be my idea, not the military's.

The best thing about working as a test pilot is the variety. In 1994 I got to fly 16 different types of aircraft. The years since have been a bit slower, but I still fly 8 - 10 types each year. I was the project pilot for the Diamond Katana, Canadair Challenger 604, Bombardier Global Express and Canadair Regional Jet series 700. I have also done short flight test programs on the Cessna Citation X, Airbus A330 and A340, Jetstream 41, IAI Galaxy (now owned by Gulfstream , and EMBRAER ERJ-145. I was the secondary Transport Canada project pilot on the Canadair Regional Jet series 900. I also did a short test program on the Airbus A340-500 and A340-600 in 2002. In 2003 and 2004 I worked on the Bombardier Global 5000. 2004 brought the Embraer ERJ-170 and 175. 2005 will see the Embraer ERJ-190.

e-mail: kev...@kilohotel.com

Last Updated Saturday, September 29 2007 @ 06:54 PM EDT