Kodiak Training

After spending almost two weeks at Spokane Turbine Center (see previous post), I then headed down to our MAF headquarters to train in the actual Kodiak that I will be flying at our location in Indonesia.

You may notice that something might be wrong with this airplane...It has wheels, not floats.  In May, MAF had just taken delivery of this new aircraft, and the floats were scheduled to be installed in July.  See my post from OSHKOSH about this same airplane with it's new set of landing gear.

My boss and I both attended training at STC and then flew this aircraft afterwards.  It was a great time learning the ins and outs of this amazing tool.  It was also ironic that we were training hard in the desert of Idaho, making dust and landing on wheels.  It won't be long until I'm training once again in this same airplane, on floats, making waves on the rivers of Central Borneo.  Airplanes are so cool!

While my boss did some takeoffs and landings at this short, little dirt strip in Idaho, I got out and took pictures.  Above he is just taking off.

Landing performance in the Kodiak is impressive as well.  It had been a while since I was in a wheel plane, so putting the Kodiak through it's paces was really fun.

I took a picture of the flight counter at 36.2 hours.  Airplane "health" is all measured in hours of flight.  I've never owned any type of new machine, and having the opportunity to fly a NEW airplane is awesome. To put it in perspective, the airplanes that this Kodiak will eventually replace each have about 25,000 hours of flight time and are 47 and 52 years old!

I've flown with MAF instructor Scott Channon on many occasions and we had a good time together once again as we spent 3 days in the Kodiak.  I can't wait to use this tool to serve the people in Indonesia.