If you've been following my blog for any time now, you know how excited I've been about the Kodiak from Quest Aircraft. Well they have finall, after 32 months from the first test flight, recieved a Type Certificate (TC) from the FAA. This means the planes will finally go into production.
We are very grateful for the team of Quest employees and suppliers who worked to accomplish this remarkable milestone. We appreciate as well the hardwork of the FAA in helping us bring this project to fruition." - Paul Schaller, Quest President and CEO
The KODIAK’s rugged aluminum construction combines superior STOL performance and high useful load. It offers proven turbine reliability with the Pratt & Whitney PT6 turbine engine, is capable of operating off floats without structural upgrades, and has the ability to land on unimproved surfaces. The KODIAK can take off in under 700 feet at full gross takeoff weight of 6,750 lbs with a useful load of 3,450 lbs and climb at over 1,700 feet per minute. The popular 3-panel Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite is standard equipment on the KODIAK.
The Kodiak is certificated for single-pilot, day/night, VFR/IFR usage and is designed for government, humanitarian and Part 135 operations but I think would make a great family station wagon. At a cool million bucks (most likely more now), I'm gonna have to find myself a rich uncle to leave me boat loads of money to buy one... Or perhaps I should just go ahead and get my commercial ticket and set up a single pilot charter operation using this beauty... Yeah, that's the ticket... A boy can dream, right?
