Kodiak - single turbine

mirage62

If you ever got to Skydive Atlanta and flew in there otter or King air you will see as close to perfect pattern and efficacy in climb as I have ever seen in jump planes. Trey the owner and sometime pilot trains his pilots to fly it right and increases the production of the airplanes. As a pilot it is very impressive and as a jumper I like the turns.

I like to see any task performed with skill, esp. flying a jump plane.

sundevil777

Very nice plane, definitely the youngest plane I've ever flown in or jumped from.

Are you jumping again?

sundevil777

Aerohio in just the last few weeks has been flying a Kodiak:

http://aerohio.com/licensed-jumpers/view-our-planes-and-facilities

Very nice plane, definitely the youngest plane I've ever flown in or jumped from.

Thanks for the link to AerOhio's site. Their Kodiak looks nice!

I thought that N# looked familiar. That plane was owned and operated by Grand Canyon Airlines before Fayard bought it.

Good little plane.
Never worked on it for jump ops but I can say that, just like any new design there were some teething issues, like windshields cracking, but Quest was always right on top of things with a mod or service bulletin.

I have made my first jump from a Kodiak recently. Nice airplane. Good climbing. Door similar to Caravan. This airplane takes a couple of jumpers less than the Caravan. I was sitting near the door and found it quite noisy.

Jumped AerOhio's a few weeks ago. Pretty sweet jumpship. Inside is very similar in size to a KA, but with the slow jumprun and big door of a C-van. I liked it a lot, and it is pretty cool looking up in the cockpit and seeing that G1000 glass cockpit! I wounder if we will start to see these become more common in the coming years.

Yes, you will see more Kodiaks hauling skydivers in the future. More Kodiaks are part of the cycle of jump-plane purchases as older jump-planes wear and out and become cost-prohibitive to maintain, they are replaced by younger (higher initial purchase price) airplanes that are less expensive to maintain and burn less fuel per jumper (lower cost per hour).

For example, piston-pounding Beech 18s and DC-3s were "the" most glamorous jump-planes during the 1970s and 1980s, but as Beech 18s required expensive spar reinforcements and (WW2-surplus) radial engine parts defame scarcer, they became increasingly expensive to maintain, ergo less reliable.
During the 1990s, they were replaced by 1960s-vintage King Air A and B90 along with DHC-6-100 Twin Otters.
When the wings on -100 Twin Otters "timed-out" they got new wings or were replaced by younger Twin Otters.
As 1960s-vintage King Airs wore out, they were replaced by younger King Airs or simpler single-turbine airplanes: Porters, Turbine-engined single Otters, Caravans, PAC-750s, Kodiaks, etc.
Keep in mind that hardly any of these airplanes were originally designed for skydiving .... Porters were designed to land on glaciers high in the Swiss Alps. Single-Otters spend most of their lives on floats or skins, hauling trapper and prospectors out of wilderness lakes. Most Caravans haul parcels for overnight couriers. PAC-750s are merely the latest in a long line of crop dusters built by Fletcher, Cresco, PAC, etc. Kodiaks were designed to deliver Christian missionaries to pagan tribes deep in Third World jungles. ..... King Air being the worst example, but they were old and inexpensive .... inexpensive because they had already been flogged through several careers hauling executives, scheduled passengers, charter passengers, cargo, midnight mail, etc. so that by the time skydivers were willing to pay for them, their cabins were too old to pressurize, their de-icing boots could no longer de-ice, their instrument panels were too old for flying in clouds and they destined for the bone-yard. By the time a (1960s-vintage) King Air was cheap enough for skydiving, owners were also seriously considering breaking it up for parts. When a DZ buys a King Air, they are basically buying the time remaining on the engines and the instrument panel. The old King Air airframe is tossed into the bargain for free.
More than one DZ has bought and old King Air, swapped the engines to his (in-service) airplane and pushed the hulk into the weeds to serve as a red-neck spare parts department.
In the end, the high cost of maintaining and insuring retractable undercarriages dooms King Airs.
Hopefully they will be replaced by Kodiaks that are much better suited to the task of hauling skydivers.