Quest Kodiak: Airplane on a Mission

Isabel Goyer

Friday, February 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Quest Kodiak [Credit: Paul Bowen]

Key Takeaways:

The Quest Kodiak is a robust turboprop single designed for mission and humanitarian operations, capable of hauling heavy loads into and out of short, rough strips in challenging terrain.
Quest Aircraft operates on a unique business model where retail sales help subsidize discounted aircraft for humanitarian organizations, aligning with its founding purpose.
The aircraft boasts an impressive power-to-weight ratio, durable construction, advanced Garmin G1000 avionics, and is remarkably easy to fly, proving capable in demanding backcountry conditions.

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It was a cruddy day to go mountain flying. A ragged gray overcast stretched over Western Washington State, high enough to make for good VFR under the deck near Spokane, but it promised to be a more complicated journey to the east, where the spine of the Bitterroots juts out, rising to 10,000 feet at the highest peaks.

I was finally right where I’d wanted to be for the past couple of years, sitting in the left seat of the big Kodiak, a new turboprop single from a startup company that’s focused not so much on the bottom line as on helping others.