Mike Folkerts

Mike Folkerts has worked in the aviation community for more than four decades with the USAF, United Airlines, NTSB, and FAA. During this career, Mike flew and instructed on the C-130, T-38, T-1 (Beech 400), C-21 (Lear 35), UV-18B (Twin Otter), Boeing 737, and numerous general aviation aircraft.
Mike’s assignments in the USAF included managing the safety program for 32 C-130s flying world-wide missions, and he was a deployed commander for 60 operations and maintenance personnel in Kuwait. As a C-130 instructor pilot, Mike flew night vision goggle (NVG), airdrop, and austere airfield missions, as well as commanding 22 aerial combat missions spanning three conflicts. 
While at the USAF Safety Center, Mike managed Safety Investigation Boards (SIBs) for ten destroyed aircraft accidents involving helicopters and fighter/transport aircraft. He also led the Issues and Analysis Division to develop USAF-wide safety policy guidance, served as the lead functional for the USAF Safety Automation System, and instructed the USAF Board President and Chief of Safety courses.
Mike served as the Chief of Safety at the USAF Academy, where he led flight and ground safety programs at the busiest VFR airfield in the U.S. that involved 65 aircraft and more than 50,000 sorties per year. As operations officer for the “Wings of Blue” parachute team, he directed 15 pilots and 120 parachutists to train over 800 cadets per year to “jump out of a perfectly good airplane” … the only program in the world where the parachutists’ initial jumps are both freefall and solo. The “Wings of Blue” parachute team also performed for audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad.  
As a first officer with United Airlines, Mike operated the Boeing 737 throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. As the aviation program manager at the USAF Academy, he supervised the planning of cadet aviation operations and coordinated with major commands to implement training courseware that ensured high quality glider, parachuting, powered flight and unmanned aircraft programs.
While at the NTSB, Mike served as a senior air safety investigator for 300+ aviation accidents. The investigation teams he led formulated numerous safety improvements for pilot training, airworthiness, air traffic control, engineering, and risk-mitigation involving a wide variety of aircraft. As an NTSB investigator, Mike also served on the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) safety committee, which promoted initiatives for safety management systems (SMS), flight data monitoring (FDM), flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) programs, and aviation safety action programs (ASAP). 
Mike has delivered safety presentations across the aviation spectrum, including EAA AirVenture, Redbird, flight schools, and Part 135 operators, and he was selected to deliver the keynote presentation for the 2021 NBAA National Safety Forum. Mike currently works as an operational safety analyst at the FAA, where he liaises with industry involved with aircraft operational standardization, and collaborates for corrective actions on FAA regulations, policies, procedures, and operating practices.
Mike received a B.S. degree in Engineering Sciences with academic distinction from the USAF Academy and obtained his M.S. in Aeronautical Sciences from Embry-Riddle as a distinguished graduate. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot & Certified Flight Instructor-Instrument, with single and multi-engine airplane ratings, and has accumulated more than 7,000 flight hours.