Spirit Air Receives Plane In Ceremony
Last week, Quest Aircraft Company delivered its first customer
Kodiak turboprop, to launch depositor Spirit Air... marking the
company's latest step in its transition from an aircraft developer,
to a full-fledged planemaker.
The completed aircraft was delivered to Spirit Air in a
presentation ceremony Friday, at the company’s headquarters
in Sandpoint, ID in the presence of the entire Quest team.
Accepting the Kodiak were the co-owners of Spirit Air, JoAnn
Wolters and Dan Schroeder. Spirit Air was the lead commercial
customer for the Kodiak when the company began taking deposits in
May 2005.
"The first delivery of the Kodiak is truly a momentous occasion
for Quest," said Paul Schaller, Quest Aircraft’s President
and CEO. "This has been a remarkable journey for everyone involved
with the program, including our customers like Spirit Air. We
appreciate them supporting us from the beginning and through all of
the milestones of certification and delivery. We are delighted that
they are here today accepting their Kodiak, N838SA."
As ANN reported, the Kodiak
received FAA Type Certification on May 30 of last year. Quest says
it continues to work with the FAA to achieve its production
certificate, at which point the company hopes to make progress
against what is currently a three-year delivery backlog.
"We are very excited to accept delivery of the first Kodiak,"
said JoAnn Wolters. "Quest is a great company and the Kodiak is a
fantastic airplane. We chose the Kodiak because of its robustness,
reliability and versatility. We are looking forward to putting it
to work in the Alaska wilderness, Idaho backcountry and on commuter
and small package runs."
Quest states the all-aluminum Kodiak combines superior STOL
performance and high useful load. Powered by a single Pratt &
Whitney PT6 turbine engine, the Kodiak is capable of working 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 3,325
lbs and climb at over 1,700 feet per minute.
A three-screen Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite is
standard equipment on the Kodiak. Quest notes they were the first
installation in a turboprop aircraft of the popular G1000 (Cessna
has since followed with its own G1000 installation in the
Caravan.)