Page 11 - August18T

What’s New with Series II?
The biggest changes are up front
in the cockpit, but Quest also made a few luxe improvements throughout the cabin.
New standard features:
• G1000 NXi Suite
• FlightStream 510
• Safe Flight ARNIC 429 AoA Indexer
• Accessory Gear Box Chip Detector
• Two new panel gloveboxes
• Cockpit voice and data recorders
• New wing-root sealing (noise/ fume reduction)
• Improved Rosen sun visors
• Improved cargo door step functionality
New optional features:
• GWX70 Weather Radar
• Single-Point Refueling (left wing root)
The Kodiak, Then and Now
The team at Quest Aircraft likes
to tout that they’ve spent the past decade continually improving the Kodiak. Some of the major updates throughout the past ten years include:
• Increased take-off and landing weights
• Inflatable door seals added
• Nose strut and drag link refinements
• Major air condition system upgrades
• Multiple payload increases
• New cabin lighting system
• Multiple new interior options, including executive style
• Airframe Fatigue life doubled
• TKS tank made available in the cargo-pod (vs. fuselage)
• Carbon-fiber Aerocet floats certified
August 2018
airplane is rustic or bare in amenities. It has all the bells and whistles found in the nicest of other single-engine turbines. The all-glass G1000 NXi panel is intui- tive for anyone even remotely familiar with Garmin products. Blue button? Yes. Envelope protection? Got it. Under-speed protection? Yes, sir. Basically, the Kodiak has every safety-related feature offered by Garmin. As Brown puts it, “At Quest, safety is always standard.” The company takes pride in the Kodiak being the safest airplane in its class, so all safety related equipment comes in the base model (in- cluding Synthetic Vision).
I found taxiing of the airplane to be “Cessna 172-easy” with no unusual quirks. The turning radius was so tight I could literally rotate on one main wheel. Even on the ground at idle, the dual-zone air conditioning did a remarkable job cooling the cabin despite the Texas heat.
I personally think the -34 engine (found also on many JetPROP conversions with which I am familiar) is one of the best ver- sions of the PT6. Quest chose this version for its ability to generate power down low (the compressor is tuned for low-altitude operation) and power for its weight (it’s one of the biggest of the “small-block” PT6’s). When I advanced the power lever, the acceleration was brisk. We rolled a seemingly short distance before reaching rotation speed (about 60 mph) and were soon climbing at 1,300 fpm at 110 KIAS.
At that rate of climb, we had enough altitude within minutes to do some ma- neuvering. I first reduced the power and established slow f light just above the stall, and found the flight characteristics “gentlemanly.” In other words, honest and predictable. I then attempted a stall with no flaps deployed: this is where the flight got interesting. I recovered from the first
The all-glass G1000 NXi panel is intuitive for anyone familiar with Garmin products.
stall attempt in a normal fashion with the elevator forward at the stall first sign of a stall, which was a non-event. On the second attempt, Mark recommended that I just hold the yoke all the way aft and fly it around. While I was a bit perplexed at this request (and watched for the wing dip that would signal an imminent spin), I found that the airplane was completely flyable in a full stall. With the stall horn sounding loudly, the ailerons remained completely effective as the airplane de- scended around 1,000 fpm.
It was unlike anything I have come across before. I think Quest is really onto something with this wing design, as the stall/spin accident scenario is unquestionably the deadliest killer in general aviation and this design repre- sents a solution. As an instructor in the single-engine turbine community, I’m on the forefront of the battle to train and educate against the perils of the stall/ spin, loss of control accident scenario. So, it is refreshing to see Quest on the leading edge (pun intended) of this battle through aerodynamic design. In other single-engine turbines, if not properly recovered, the stall/spin is often deadly
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