AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2011 - 56

Unfaired flap tracks (top) and oversized tires (above) show that Kodiak designers value simplicity and strength more than speed. The big door (top right) is large enough for cargo on pallets.

craft sales would fund deeply discounted airplanes for the original investors to carry out their charitable work. So far, it’s pretty much worked that way. Quest has produced and delivered 47 airplanes, and nine of them are working in remote areas such as New Guinea, Indonesia, and Africa. The others are being used as aerial SUVs, jump planes, Part 135 charters, and floatplanes, and they’re owned by individuals, businesses, and government agencies. The proceeds for each nine airplanes Quest sells to retail customers are used to build one for the service organizations that helped found the company and launch the Kodiak. Quest and its roughly 130 employees manufacture Kodiaks at an 84,000-square-foot production facility in Idaho. Everything about the Kodiak is dictated by the harsh nature of its uncompromising mission: • The Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 turboprop engine (750 shaft horsepower) was selected because 100LL has become scarce or completely unavailable in remote corners of the world. • Tall gear and 29-inch main tires provide 19 inches of ground clearance for the four-blade Hartzell aluminum prop, a vital consideration when flying in and out of rough airstrips. • An oversized oil cooler allows operation in equatorial regions and temperatures as high as 131 degrees F (55 degrees C). • A 49-inch-square cargo door allows the unloading of palletized containers. • A cuffed wing with a downturned outboard section lowers the angle of incidence and keeps the ailerons effective even after the wing roots have stalled. • A rubberized floor and metal tie-down straps secure cargo. • Two 24-volt Concorde batteries linked in series provide up to 48 volts for high-and-hot starts. • An inertial separator (which is electronically actuated)

keeps the engine from ingesting debris. A three-screen Garmin G1000 suite with synthetic vision allows pilots to avoid terrain in mountainous areas. “We know these airplanes are likely to be flown extensively in mountainous areas so we make sure synthetic vision is standard equipment,” Stidham said. “We want all our customers to have the safety benefits that come with it.” Walking around the Kodiak, comparisons with another large, single-engine, fixed-gear, high-wing turboprop—Cessna’s 208 Caravan—are unavoidable. But Quest officials say the two airplanes are quite different. The Caravan was designed to carry air freight from one hard-surface runway to another. The Kodiak was made specifically for bush flying, and its real competitors in the Cessna line are piston aircraft such as 206s, 207s, and 185s (as well as other backcountry stalwarts such as de Havilland Beavers and Otters). The Kodiak’s systems were designed for simplicity, reliability, and ease of maintenance. The airplane carries 320 gallons of fuel in two wing tanks that gravity feed to the engine. Two fuel selectors are normally left On at all times in flight. A pair of magnetic fuel quantity gauges can be checked from the ground without climbing atop the wings.

AOPA PILOT •

56 • MARCH 2011

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2011