With Flared Pants And Big Feet: Quest Kodiak Goes Amphibious!

The first delivered Kodiak on the recently certified Wipline 7000 floats   photo: Quest

 If I had the cash, I'd have an order in for a brand new Viking 400, the back-in-production Twin Otter derivative. But, with money kinda tight these days, maybe what I really need is a Quest Kodiak, especially since now you can fetch one with some snazzy new Wipline 7000 floats. For less than half the green of the Viking 400, I could be hopping from the lake to the airport, and then back to lake again. And truthfully, I've got less than 9 friends anyway, I'd have a heck of a time filling all 18 seats in the Twin Otter. Oh wait, If I had a Kodiak OR a Twin Otter, I'd probably have a lot more friends!

 Well anyway, the point is that you can now add floats, with or without wheels, to the already hard-working Kodiak. It's the completion of the original concept for the Kodiak... to make a modern STOL aircraft that's comparatively economical and offer maximum versatility. An airplane like this would certainly make much of the world readily accessible. And I'm thinking you could have some pretty serious fun getting there too, wherever there is.

 Back in April 2010, Quest also received FAA approval for an increase in the max take-off weight on the Kodiak to 7,255 pounds.  That's a 505 pound increase. I'm thinking that's a pretty big deal, and could make a noticeable difference on a day when you've got an extra 2 people, and their stuff, that really need hauled out of the jungle.

 The bottom line for me is that I'm really glad both the Kodiak and the updated Twin Otter are in production and available to work their tails off for operators who need real, hardcore utility aircraft!

 Testing the Wipline 7000 floats on a Kodiak   photo: Wipaire

Comments

[Turb]

A beautiful airplane! Think of the amount of beer it could carry (for humanitarian purposes, of course!).