The Kodiak Owners and Pilots Society has enrolled 10 per cent of the global Kodiak fleet in its first year of operation. It has just achieved 38 member aircraft against a global operational fleet numbering 373 aeroplanes. The group set a 10 per cent target at last year’s Oshkosh event and hit it in 12 months.

“The Kodiak community was ready for something built by owners rather than sold to them. Thirty eight owners in 12 months tells us we read that right,” says KOPS co-founder John Hunt.

Membership spans every generation of the aeroplane. The group counts 32 Kodiak 100s across the Legacy, Series I, Series II and Series III models, but penetration is strongest in the newest segment. Six of the world’s 28 Kodiak 900s are enrolled, representing more than one in five 900 owners.

“The number that tells the real story is the 900. More than one in five of those owners signed up. That is the newest aeroplane and the most demanding customer in the fleet. They had every option available to them and they chose this,” adds Mark Brown, KOPS co-founder and the highest-time Kodiak pilot in the world.

KOPS members now receive 30 per cent off a Crewchief Systems subscription. Crewchief is an aircraft asset intelligence platform that digitises logbooks, tracks airworthiness directives and service bulletins, and shows real-time compliance status on a single dashboard. The Kodiak fleet is old enough that service bulletin tracking now drives real money. A clean, digitised maintenance history is one of the largest single levers on resale value.

Kodiak owners who join KOPS and complete additional training with 11 Aviation are also eligible for a 10 per cent hull premium dividend through Travers Aviation Insurance.

Taken together, the two benefits are straightforward. A KOPS membership can pay for itself on maintenance software and insurance alone. That is before a member attends a single event. When KOPS held its most recent fly-out on June 5-7 at Silvies Valley Ranch in Central Oregon, more than one quarter of its membership attended.

“When more than a quarter of your membership flies across the country to spend a weekend together, you’ve built something much bigger than an owners’ group. That’s the community we set out to create,” continues Hunt.

KOPS runs two- and three-day regional events built around what the aeroplane actually does: backcountry and mountain operations, seaplane flying, maintenance training, not ballrooms and slide decks. Building on the success of these, it is launching the Kodiak Owner Proficiency Series to bring owner-focused education to Kodiak operators across North America.

Each two-day event combines operational best practices, maintenance education, safety discussions and networking in an intimate setting. Owners learn from industry experts while sharing real-world experience with fellow Kodiak operators. These events are in addition to the large annual conventions KOPS hosts each year.

The first two dates, taking place in Kent Island Resort, Maryland and Tallahassee, Florida, are set for October 2026.

KOPS is already planning to expand the Proficiency Series in 2027 with additional events hosted by Broadie’s Aircraft Service in Fort Worth, Texas and Central Flying Service in Little Rock, Arkansas.