Getting 008 Ready for the Big Time

Tomorrow morning Rick and Mark will take off from JAARS in 8KQ and head for Oshkosh, Wisconsin, site of the world's premier aviation aficionado air-show. Cleaned up and shiny, it will join the JAARS team of 30-some people. It will be one of at least five other Kodiaks showing up.

Meanwhile, back in the welding shop, preparations are underway for a more serious venture -- giving 8KQ the range to fly halfway around the globe to Papua New Guinea. This 300-gallon "ferry tank" will be installed in the cabin, effectively doubling the range of 8KQ, and making the long legs of that trip possible. More to come on the route that we are planning to take.

It's Been Quite a Month

We trained our first pilot from a field program in the Kodiak this month. Rick Nachtigal from Papua New Guinea, on a short leave in the U.S., spent most of July at JAARS. Mark Wuerffel and I tried out our developing curriculum on Rick -- not that it was that challenging a job. Rick has 15+ years of flying experience in that Pacific island country, piloting Cessna 206's, a turbine-powered Islander, and our King Air 200. Rick will be the lead Kodiak pilot and the first Kodiak training pilot in PNG when we get N498KQ there in September.

The course included the usual ground-school classes, and about 25 hours of flight time culminating in the same unimproved mountain airstrips that Mark and I have been testing.

Next stop for Rick and Mark will be the EAA's AirVenture airshow next week, where they will display the Kodiak at the JAARS pavilion. This year EAA is highlighting "Public Benefit" and Mission Aviation with their "Fly4Life" slogan. Am I going too? Sorry, Charlie. I've got a cabin in the montains in Montana with my name on it (where my brother-in-law runs a great camp, Clydehurst Christian Ranch). After a badly-needed bit of R&R, we hit the next big challenge -- getting N498KQ over the pond to PNG. Stay tuned.