Flight Review: Daher Kodiak 900

Ever since seeing a Kodiak at the Reklaw Fly-In (Texas) around a decade ago, I have admired the Kodiak series of airplanes. The Kodiak 100 looked at home on the grass runway among the thousands of aviation aficionados and their short-field airplanes. Since that first sighting and flying the Kodiak 100 Series II model four years ago, my outlook toward the Kodiak developed from a curiosity to a deep appreciation.

So, when the opportunity came for Twin & Turbine to fly the new Kodiak 900, the editor didn’t even have to finish the sentence. The answer was, “Yes!” Kodiak Chief Demo Pilot and Sales and Marketing Director Mark Brown met me at the Lufkin Airport (LFK) to show me the company’s newest steed. After he landed and taxied up to the ramp, the restaurant and FBO quickly emptied to come and see up close what was clearly an impressively different airplane. We chatted with the locals, and then I got down to the business of learning from Mark about the Kodiak 900 differences.

Lead-Up to the 900
Originally designed to fill a niche for a turbine-powered airplane to support missionary and humanitarian endeavors in remote parts of the world, the Kodiak 100 quickly gained the trust and admiration of its owners and pilots as an honest, reliable and incredibly safe airplane. Though admittedly slow and, in its early years, unremarkable in terms of amenities, the Kodiak 100 excels in exactly what it was designed to do: move a lot of people and cargo in and out of short, unimproved landing strips.

In 2018, the Kodiak 100 Series II came to market with an upgraded interior and much-needed avionics upgrade to the G1000 NXi. But it didn’t go faster or farther or look much different from the exterior. There were refinements, but it was still a working airplane at its core.

And then something happened that surprised me. In 2019, Daher bought Quest Aircraft Company along with the production line of the Kodiak. Why would Daher, known for its super-fast TBM series of airplanes, purchase Quest and the Kodiak 100 production? I didn’t get it. I mean, there’s no real way to make the Kodiak fast or sleek, right? Wrong.

Daher has a long history of taking the TBM series of airplanes and making them go faster and farther and carry more. While the TBM 700 is a fine airplane, the TBM 850 goes 25 knots faster with more horsepower. And the 9XX series is almost 50 knots faster than its oldest sibling. Fifty knots. That’s a lot of speed. What Daher did to the TBM was bolt on bigger engines and find every possible aerodynamic efficiency to turn the latest and greatest TBM 960 into the current pinnacle of owner-flown, six-seat flying.

So, when Daher bought the Kodiak production line, their highly proficient and experienced research and development (R&D) team went to the task of making the Kodiak product line sleeker and faster. The company took plans in development and brought more to the table. Instead of the new Kodiak just being a little bit faster or a little bit bigger, they looked at every aspect of the project to ensure its reputation aligned with the TBM.

Regarding speed, two sides of a coin must be considered: increase the horsepower and reduce the drag. With its TBM line, the Daher team draws experience in both.

Horsepower is King
To find more horsepower, Daher needed to move up in engine. They selected the PT6-140A, which easily produces 900 HP. That’s 200 more horsepower (in cruise) than the Kodiak 100. The PT6-140A is the biggest of the “small PT6s.” I personally love the small PT6s because they inherently weigh less than their “big block” sister engines but create tremendous horsepower. In aviation-speak, they have a high power-to-weight ratio, especially at the lower altitudes. Seeing as the Kodiak isn’t designed for high altitude, the PT6-140A is a perfect mate.

Effectively, everything firewall-forward is brand new on the Kodiak 900. The engine is completely different, and the propeller is upgraded to the five-blade composite Hartzell. Even just sitting statically on the airplane, the huge blades are a work of art, reeking of fine design. But they are more than bold and beautiful, they create a ton of efficient thrust quietly.

Quiet. That’s a word you don’t hear much in turboprop aviation – but it is true with the Kodiak 900. Daher wanted a quiet airplane to meet all the rigorous noise standards required in Europe. They also desired a low noise signature because one market the Kodiak 900 is designed for is special missions (more on this later in the article). The net effect is the Kodiak is quieter on the outside of the airplane but also significantly quieter on the inside.

With the horsepower problem solved, the Daher R&D team tackled the abundance of parasite drag found on a Kodiak 100. To reduce drag, Daher used smaller tires and added wheel fairings. And these are not flimsy “wheel pants” you find on some light, piston singles. The wheel fairings on a Kodiak 900 can be stood or sat upon and are incredibly strong and sturdy. Daher added fairings to just about every nook and cranny possible. In short, they reduced interference drag – the type of parasite drag related to the sum of drag from competing airflows. For example, where the wing mates with the fuselage or the horizontal stabilizer mates with the vertical stabilizer, there will be competing airflows and an increase in interference drag. Reducing interference drag leads to a faster airplane.

The Cabin Experience
Many refinements of the TBM were transferred to the Kodiak 900. I’m 6-foot 4-inches and 220 pounds of pure muscle (we can all dream, right?), and I can tell you that few airplanes are made for us tall people. But, the Kodiak has a “big feel” and plenty of room in the right places. The pilot seats adjust in every conceivable way, and the tallest of pilots will still be moving the seat forward when landing or taking off. I never once hit my head in turbulence, a rarity in most airplanes.

During a portion of the demonstration flight, I hopped in the back of the cabin, giving up the front seat to my sidekick for the day, teenage aviatrix Bailey Ward from the “In the Hangar” YouTube Series. I learned while riding in the back of the Kodiak 900 that it’s like riding in the back of a TBM – meaning it is fabulous. The seats are made for comfort and style, the amenities are aplenty (cupholders, USB ports, headset plug-ins), and there’s plenty of room. Speaking of room, the 900 is more than 4.5 feet longer than the 100, adding more space for more cargo. The noise levels are low enough to fly without headsets, but headsets make it incredibly comfortable.

Comparing the Kodiak 100 to the 900 reveals all sorts of neat upgrades. The seats in the back can face either forward or backward. The main landing gear is moved aft, so there is no need for a tail stand. The main landing gear is attached lower on the fuselage making ground clearance even greater. Single-point refueling capability is easily accessible underside of the left wing. Dual-zone air conditioners work incredibly well, and the vastly improved cargo pod is standard.
By the way, that cargo pod on the belly of the airplane is impressive. It has the same volume capacity as the Kodiak 100 but has been aerodynamically improved and offers an opening in the back that allows for long items (rifles, skis, tent poles, ladders, etc.) to be easily loaded.

Flying the Kodiak 900
The Kodiak 900 is an honest and true airplane with no gimmicks or gaps in performance. We were lightly loaded on the day I got to fly, but the Kodiak climbed extremely well. I usually talk about the rate of climb in an airplane when considering performance, but a better judge of performance (arguably) for an airplane is the angle of climb. Using the immensely useful Garmin Flight Path Marker on the G1000 NXi, I observed a climb angle of 9 degrees on takeoff with light winds, and I wasn’t even trying to perform a Vx climb. Contrasting that to other single-engine turbine airplanes, most climb at 7 degrees at most. Departing from the 5,400-foot Runway 07 at KLFK, we were ready to turn crosswind when we approached the end of the runway.

Our photo airplane (Cessna 172) took off well before us, so we sprinted to our rendezvous point over Lake Sam Rayburn, about 20 miles east of Lufkin. The top speed was 200 KTAS at 7,500 feet with +10 ISA. That’s an impressive number for any fixed-gear airplane but really impressive for an airplane that can land in less than 1,500 feet.

I performed stalls, slow flight and a few steep turns to get to know the airplane, though I felt like I already did. It simply is not a hard plane to fly as its stable, responsive and very predictable. I want to underline and highlight one aspect of the flight characteristics – responsive. This is a hard aspect of flying to describe, but some airplanes get “sloppy” when flown slowly. While all airplanes get sloppier when flown slower, the Kodiak 900 retains its responsiveness at slow speeds much more so than I expected. While the Kodiak 100 was designed for slow speeds, the impressive part of the Kodiak 900 is its fast cruise speed. A cruise speed of 200 KTAS is an aerodynamic feat for an airplane that can land in 1,500 feet, is FIKI-capable, handles rugged terrain, and has a useful load of over 3,600 lbs. But the real story of the Kodiak 900 is that it cruises at 200-plus KTAS and still behaves predictably and responsively when flying slow.

Landing the Kodiak 900 is simple, with just a few nuances, mostly related to the engine operation (especially if peak performance is desired). But, for the most part, anyone in the general pilot population could jump in a Kodiak 900 and take off and land on a reasonably long and wide runway without much trouble. Of course, if flying into a 2,000-foot grass strip nestled in the mountains at a high-density altitude with a full load of people and stuff onboard, a well-trained pilot will be required. But, the nature of a Kodiak is that it is a rather simple airplane to fly and most pilots will be able to graduate to being a solid Kodiak 900 pilot in short order.

The Right Mission
Daher foresees three primary markets for the Kodiak 900: special missions, fleet operators and owner/operators from the backcountry.

Special missions include governmental agencies ranging from border patrol, police departments, surveillance operators, fire patrols and medical transport. Many of those agencies presently use rotary wing aircraft for these types of missions, but rotary wing is expensive. A Kodiak 900 can loiter longer (over 9 hours!), carry more people and equipment, and it has a much smaller noise signature. The maintenance requirements for a Kodiak 900 are far less than a helicopter, and the associated dispatch reliability is super high.

“Fleet operators” means smaller airlines. I recently flew from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands to Seattle, WA, with a fleet operator to connect with my “big” airline flight to Texas. The flight was in a tired and old Cessna Caravan that had none of the advancements and safety features of a Kodiak 900. The Kodiak 900 is going to provide an efficient alternative for fleet operators who want to lower their operating expenses and increase the safety of their fleet, all while moving up in speed. And most aviation prognosticators believe there will be an increase in fleet operators as cities become more crowded. City planners are realizing small airlines can move people quite efficiently from small airports in rural areas to and from big cities.

And then there’s the owner-flown market – the market I’ve spent my last two decades serving. This market is flush with super cool turbine airplanes that are the epitome of style and speed, but few can operate from a grass strip. If you own a ranch with a grass strip and a Piper Meridian, TBM, Vision Jet or King Air, you’ve dreamed of the day you could land at your ranch. But none of those airplanes are really made for rough strips. You might land there 30 times with success, but the first time you have a nose gear collapse, an engine tear-down, off-pavement maintenance or an insurance claim, you’ll land on the asphalt and then drive to the beloved ranch.

What has been interesting to me is that in the last two months, I’ve had two Piper Meridian owners approach me to sell their Meridian so they can buy a Kodiak 900. With 200 KTAS cruise, full icing capability, and enough room for three times as much load, the Kodiak will show up to the ranch far faster than the Meridian because of the cumbersome and lengthy drive from the airport. The Kodiak 900 can bridge the gap from asphalt to grass or dirt with style and speed.

If you want to do an interesting study, enter a hypothetical Kodiak 900 into your flight planning software (Foreflight or FltPlan) and contrast the time-to-fly with any of the other much faster turboprop airplanes on the market. Except on the longest of flights, the slower Kodiak 900 will show up only minutes behind the faster turboprops. And, since it goes from asphalt to grass, the Kodiak 900 will beat the asphalt-requiring turboprops every time if landing off paved runways.

So, will Daher’s bet on making the Kodiak bigger, better, faster and stronger win sales in the marketplace? It appears so. Kodiak received the type certificate in late July 2022, and they have already sold all the production capability through the summer of 2023. The much improved Kodiak 900 is grasping market share, and I suspect there’ll be a long production history. Now, where are my fishing poles and camping gear?