Kodiak 038 On Its Way

We were thrilled once again to take delivery of a new Kodiak 100, serial number 038, at the Quest factory in Sandpoint, Idaho last week, a year and a half after our first, number 008.

This one is also slated to go to Papua New Guinea (see previous posts from September and October 2009).  It's nearly identical to our first, with a few minor improvements Quest has made.  Our pilots and mechanics in PNG are telling us that the first Kodiak is proving to be a very efficient and reliable tool (see "008 In the Village," October 2009).  They're extremely anxious to see this one arrive, besides two more, for a total of four Kodiaks slated to serve in that country.

After I departed by airline from Waxhaw, there were some minor glitches in the FAA certification of the airplane, so I had some time to "kill" in the Northwest.  Such a deal.  So I found my way to one of my favorite places on earth, Clydehurst Christian Ranch, a few miles south of Big Timber, Montana.  It's the current work and passion of my brother and sister-in-law, Wayne and Judy Brownson.  Even four months after my week-long hospitalization upon returning from Haiti, I have still been struggling with the effects of some as-yet undiagnosed malady.  Four days at Clydehurst were just the "medicine" I needed, and I think from these pictures you will agree.

Finally we were able to spend a day looking over and flying the new Kodiak, and on Wednesday August 11 we departed for JAARS.  My fellow pilot was Gerry Gardner who I had trained in the Kodiak for service in Haiti with Samaritan's Purse.  We took off from Sandpoint, Idaho and skirted north of the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, right over Clydehurst and the Boulder River valley.

After a fuel stop in Powell, Wyoming to visit my friends Bill and Mary Beth Keil, and Orville Moore, we were dodging the summer storms across Nebraska.  We made an overnight stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and made it to Waxhaw, North Carolina on the second day, after a total of about thirteen hours of flight.

Kodiak N497KQ now sits in its new (temporary) home where we will begin installation of a few more modifications such as an HF radio.  This airplane is on an accellerated track, and it is our hope to have it on its way to PNG by October.