Driving on an early May morning to Sandpoint, Idaho, to see the Quest Aircraft factory and then fly a new Kodiak 100 Series II to California, it was clear that icing conditions were not only forecast but likely in the wet gray clouds that shrouded the local mountains. For the flight-into-known-icing-certified Kodiak, however, icing is not a problem, and in the 11 years since it entered service, the capable utility single-engine turboprop has proven its mettle in challenging flying all over the world.
Today’s flight, while relatively routine for the Kodiak, would be just a taste of what the airplane can do, but it showed me that the Kodiak is tremendously flexible. It fits in to the comfortable-transportation category with handsome, comfortable interior furnishings but quickly transforms into the utility role where landing on a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere is just a normal operation. Of course, the Kodiak can land almost anywhere, with optional straight or amphibious Aerocet or Wipline floats available, and it can carry more cargo with installation of the optional belly-mounted cargo pod.
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