Thursday, April 29, 2010… Like anything worthwhile, it has taken more than a little effort for KODIAK s/n 0020 to find its way into the heart of Borneo. Last time we caught up with this aircraft it was on tour in the UK (see the log for December 4, 2009 below). It has certainly seen a lot of terrain since then.
    Here’s an overview of the ferry flight that brought the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) KODIAK from Nampa, Idaho, USA to Tarakan, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia.

    After a long and dusty journey, KODIAK touched down on Tarakan where Kalimantan’s northeast bay looks out across the Celebes Sea. MAF has a flight base on this little island just off the coast. From Tarakan MAF serves a broad swath of the immense and wild landmass of Borneo, the third largest island on earth. Reports from MAF staff on the ground underscore how appropriate it was that this shiny new aircraft arrived on Christmas Eve. The KODIAK is a long awaited gift for the people who call this challenging region home.

    And now, having negotiated mountains of red tape, the Kalimantan KODIAK, with its proper papers and new registration, is negotiating the weather and terrain that make aircraft such a vital link in this part of the world.

    The people of Kalimantan live lives confined by the very same environment that supports them. Their most reliable connections are the small airstrips of grass, mud, or dust, that dot an otherwise almost impenetrable jungle. This is the kind of environment where KODIAK PK-MEB is right at home.

    Most of these airstrips are pocked with potholes and, occasionally, dotted with animals. Landings almost always draw a crowd but on these first flights the KODIAK has been immediately engulfed by locals who come out to see first-hand the aircraft that will fit twice the load in one less visit.

    And here, like everywhere, when the big plane stops and the doors open wide, the faces are always different. And here, like everywhere, the welcome is just the same.

    The KODIAK has arrived.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010…Gather good people in a troubled place, give them purpose -- give them a KODIAK -- and they will make the good even better.
     That's a conclusion we've come to expect from the news arriving through the mission groups that are putting KODIAK to work. We are extremely grateful to hear from them because they’re sharing something we couldn't expect…something we’d honestly only hoped for.
     With two KODIAKs hard at work in Haiti we hear a good deal about capability. For example, one of the more typical loads is MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) provided via the UN’s World Food Program.

Each flight delivers between 1,000 and 1,300 meals to villages like Mare Rouge where local families are doing their best to house and feed the overwhelming number of displaced people who have flooded in from larger cities like Port Au Prince. There is a lot of food in those packages.
     From time to time we also hear stories that really bring the crisis home.

     Recently we heard about Julane, a young Haitian girl who was injured in the earthquake when falling concrete compressed her spine against her spinal cord and cut off feeling to her legs. Because the medical facilities in Port Au Prince were overrun she was taken 100 miles southwest to Les Cayes but doctors there determined they could not take the pressure off her spine. Fortunately they were able to find a doctor with the University of Miami Medical Facility, which is set up like a MASH unit just behind the MAF compound back in Port Au Prince. So she was loaded in the Samaritan’s Purse KODIAK and brought, with her mother, to the best medical care on the Island. The last we’ve heard of Julane is that she was feeling pain in her knee and, having felt nothing in her legs for weeks, this was very good sign.
     These are the kinds of amazing stories we keep hearing from Haiti. They show the kind of work we have always expected KODIAK to shoulder. But, from time to time, we catch a glimpse of something we had only hoped for, and it’s not just in seeing what happened…but how it happened.
     You see, the medical evacuation that brought Julane to hospital was organized by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)…and flown by a JAARS pilot with his former Moody Aviation instructor…all in a Samaritan's Purse KODIAK. These organizations are brothers and sisters who serve a common goal and it is a thrill to witness this incredible cooperative effort and see these groups continue to grow together in common, capable, equipment.

     Meanwhile these, and many other, mission aviation groups now either fly, or are waiting for, their own KODIAK. Nine are currently in the hands of mission organizations worldwide.

     The point is simple: An aircraft is a connection. It bridges the gap between people, places, and things. And while it's true that the KODIAK does much of its work in the air, it also serves as common ground. And, quite often, that makes all the difference.
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Monday, February 22, 2010…There are now two KODIAKs serving in Haiti.
     The first is owned by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), which has been working in country for decades. Their team of 30 pilots, mechanics, and logistical personnel provide invaluable expertise while coordinating a massive relief effort. The second is owned by Samaritan's Purse and will be operated during this crisis by JAARS. It was flown into Haiti by Steve Ottaviano (JAARS Assistant Director for Flight Standards). Steve describes the amazing cooperative effort underway.
     “The staff from MAF, Samaritan’s Purse, JAARS, Missionary Flights International and others all work as one team. Hundreds of personnel and tons of food and medical supplies have been pouring in via Missionary Flights International (“MFI”) of Ft. Pierce, FL. The material has to be sorted and stashed, then made into loads (about 1,800 lb.) that can be put into the KODIAKs for their quick flights to the outlying towns for delivery to relief workers, missionaries, orphanages, hospitals and “IDP” (internally displaces persons) camps that are growing as people flee Port Au Prince.”
     MAF has already moved over 550,000 pounds of cargo and more than 2,000 people with its fleet alone. But those numbers belie the true effort that is the work in Haiti: saving lives. Samaritan's Purse and its KODIAK are an essential part of that work. These two aircraft now stand shoulder to shoulder as the mission continues.

     And thanks to Steve we have an on the ground report.

     “Life on the streets continues. Food is available, if you have money to buy it. But that's the problem. Normal sources of income, as meager as they were before, have been disrupted. Port Au Prince is in a "slow burn" as the secondary crisis mounts. Rainy season will begin in weeks. Disease will become public enemy number one, but security will also decline as people get more desperate. I was impressed with how well-mannered the Haitian people were, considering what they've been through, but how far will their tolerance stretch?”

     The people of Haiti are responding in miraculous ways amid a crisis where structure and reliability has literally been turned to dust. And that dust still hangs high in the air. Steve reports that, “The work is grueling and the hours long. Dust coats everything, including computers, airplanes (inside and out) and clothes. It creates a brown pall that hangs thousands of feet over the valley.” It's an unpleasant but telling truth that quite literally represents the lives of everyone that have gone from concrete reality to a hazy uncertainty. And the mission will not be finished until it's all gone -- both literally and figuratively.
     Toward that end, aircraft fly daily, cutting through the dust with decisive consistent resolve. They are flown by determined people who need capable and reliable equipment. They deliver not just supplies but the base to do it consistently -- to provide some order, some structure, and some reason to believe tomorrow will be better. Steve shares that you can’t help but wonder, “Where is the end of all this?  How will the city ever be rebuilt?  Answers to those questions seem like a luxury right now as we work on the immediate goals of relieving the suffering and averting a secondary disaster, while in the process try to demonstrate God's love and His story of redemption.”
     It's important that the KODIAKs perform, their pace delivers hope. This is still a region with limited electricity, few diesel generators, and where much of the useable water is collected from rain. To hear a KODIAK turbine in that environment means that you are not cut off. It means you are not forgotten. It means that help is coming.
     It is for these very circumstances that we build the KODIAK. Here in Sandpoint, that's not always easy to see from the blueprints, or in the faces of our people as they do their work...but it translates through their hands into an aircraft that's built to keep going when circumstances are at their worst. Most people will never call on the KODIAK the way that MAF or Samaritan's Purse -- or the people of Haiti -- already have. But they can. And it is our deepest privilege to serve with the people who do.
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010…For the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) relief effort in Haiti help came just in the nick of time.
     The three MAF Cessnas already in Haiti were hard pressed in the wake of the earthquake. The pilots based in-country were in dire need of relief and MAF’s supply of aviation gasoline (avgas) had dwindled to a single truck by the time KODIAK arrived in the disaster zone. Just as exhaustion set in the KODIAK put another shoulder under the load to help keep the mission moving forward. Thankfully, refueling is not an issue because the KODIAK flies on jet-A which is readily available in Haiti and more economical than avgas. And the two extra pilots who joined the flight from MAF’s headquarters in Nampa, Idaho are providing much needed support to the pilots who had been working nonstop since the disaster struck.
     “MAF was blessed to be able to fly the new KODIAK where it was direly needed in the very heart of the Haitian catastrophe,” said MAF President John Boyd. “Meanwhile, MAF continues serving a vital role at the Port-au-Prince airport, coordinating the arrival and delivery of international aid flights that are crucial to the survival of hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims.”
     Since its arrival in Port-au-Prince, the KODIAK has been in continual daytime use as an air ambulance transferring physicians and patients from Port-au-Prince and the devastated port city of Jacmel to a little-damaged hospital in the inland Haitian city of Pignon.

     We were also very excited to hear that the two boxes of supplies collected by 9-year-old Moise Salois of Nampa, Idaho were delivered to a Haitian orphanage the very next day after the KODIAK arrived.
     For all of you who are putting boots on the ground in this disaster zone…our prayers are with you as the mission continues.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010…There is a boy whose name is Moise. He lives in Nampa, Idaho, now, but his brothers and grandmother are back in the place he'll always know as home…they're in Haiti.

In the wake of the greatest natural disaster that country has known, Moise collected two boxes of aid including medical supplies, infant formula, food and clothing. It was our great satisfaction to learn today that this cargo would be delivered to his home in the back of a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) KODIAK.

     This is the KODIAK's kind of war. It doesn't involve bullets or great armies of destruction. It is exactly the opposite. It's a war on suffering and a fight for the needy. Its enemies are cost distance and time. MAF fights this war all over the world, charged by design with meeting that mission and delivering peace through comfort and care. It's a lofty goal that ultimately isn't measured by the good will that sustains it. Boiled down, it's often measured by other variables…specifically, in cargo delivered and jet fuel. That's where we come in.
     MAF sent out a press release, today, about Moise Salois, their KODIAK's mission to Haiti, and MAF's missions all over the world. It's a moving story of MAF's unwavering commitment of service…which is why one line at the end struck us so strongly.
     "Over the next few years, MAF will place 18 KODIAKS into service, replacing many of its Cessna 206s. Because this revolutionary aircraft can carry nearly twice the cargo of the Cessna 206, which makes up most of MAF’s fleet, the amount of medicine, food and disaster relief supplies MAF delivers at half the cost per cargo pound."
     At its base, aircraft manufacturing is a cold business of folding sheet metal, bucking rivets and expediting delivery. But it's never been just that for us. At Quest there is a brotherhood that leaves our hangar on the wings of each KODIAK. It's not about who we help. It's ultimately about who they help through us...and us through them.
     MAF KODIAK N103MF took off January 20, for the 18-hour flight across 3,000 miles to Haiti. We do not know when we will hear from them next. Honestly, they have more important things to do. And we have more planes to build to help them do it.
     Godspeed!
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Friday, December 4, 2009…When do great achievements become commonplace?
     From Bleriot's English Channel flight to Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing, history is full of feats that once seemed unimaginable. Many of these have become so commonplace as to be almost trivial today. The image of MAF KODIAK N9710M over Les Roches Douvres (the lighthouse mid-way between Guernsey and the French coast of Brittany) brings to mind a long history of achievement that spans the White Cliffs of Dover to the shores of Normandy. True, it's just another one of our aircraft working over another distant shore. But my, how history has changed and how aviation has changed it. (Geoff Jones, thank you very much for the photo.)
     More and more KODIAKs are out in the world doing what we built them to do. They've flown west…covering the 2400 miles of open Pacific. N9710M charted the course northeast from Newfoundland to Greenland then Iceland and on to the UK.

That makes it the third KODIAK to cross the Atlantic.
     While in the UK, KODIAK has taken in the sights (there aren’t many fortresses islands in Idaho).

It was also on display at the Duxford Airshow, next to aircraft much more familiar with British soil.

And, KODIAK made a promotional appearance at an old WWII airfield.

Anywhere we see grass reclaiming tarmac makes up feel right at home…even half a world away.

     Soon N9710M will be on its way through Europe and Asia to its final destination. One more journey to make before it lands at its new home in Borneo.
     We build KODIAK for this kind of adventure. We build them to lay bridges where none existed before. It's all becoming quite normal. But when seeing our KODIAK flying high over the English Channel becomes commonplace, it is only through the greatness of those who paved the way.
     With respect to those who made our efforts possible, we press on. Our hope is that these efforts won't just make distant frontiers reachable, but like those who came before us, these efforts - like our KODIAK - will ultimately make the journey commonplace.
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Friday, November 13, 2009…World travelers will tell you that when visiting a foreign land the greatest compliment isn't being taught the ways of the locals, it's being accepted as one. That gift has now been bestowed on the JAARS KODIAK.
     Initially registered in the U.S. as N498KQ, the first KODIAK in PNG (Papua New Guinea) has now – after little more than one month of local operation – been officially accepted by the local governing bodies. This acceptance comes both in the form of a PNG Certificate of Airworthiness and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Air Operators Certificate that was flown up from Pt. Morsby to Ukarumpa today. This official approval means that N498KQ has been given a new native name – P2-SIB.
     This is more than just a random string of alphanumerics. Rick Nachtigal (JAARS PNG KODIAK Implementation Coordinator) explains how KODIAK P2-SIB has inherited a name and a mission. "It used to be the number on one of our old C402’s. We had two of them and they were real work horses. However, as the price of avgas began to rise, and rumors began circulating of it being cut off from PNG, we decided to move towards a turbine fleet. We are excited to get the KODIAK which fills a critical need for long range flights into short to medium length airstrips. We loved the call sign “SIB” and decided to use it on our first KODIAK." To make the day even better, Rick also received his official Type endorsement and Instrument of Approval as training captain on the KODIAK. So, bright and early Monday morning he will begin transitioning a second JAARS pilot into the KODIAK.
     In its first 40 days of work, this airplane has logged about 30 hours. This includes numerous training flights into remote villages.

The first operational flight in PNG was to carry kids back to school after break.

KODIAK also flew a translator and her gear into the interior of PNG to meet a JAARS helicopter that took her on to a particularly remote village in the Finisterre Mountains.

So far this airplane has been out doing what it was born to do. And on Monday, November 16th it will take off for the very first operational flight of a PNG registered KODIAK.

     In short, N498KQ, now PS-SIB, has arrived. KODIAK is shouldering the load and picking right up where the old workhorses left off.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009…How do you know when you’ve made it?
     For some, it’s the day you throw your graduation cap in the air, or the night you hear those quiet words “it’s a girl”, or the moment you realize that boot camp is over and the real adventure is about to begin. For us…we know the real adventure is beginning when our aircraft traverses an otherwise impassable jungle...

...to touch dirt on a tiny grass strip cut into the side of a hill with a variable five to fifteen-degree incline and roll to a stop within 700 feet.

This is pretty much exactly what we had in mind when we pulled out that first clean sheet of paper and started engineering the KODIAK. Imagine our elation this week when  JAARS sent photos of their pilots bringing this dream to life.

     The fact that a crowd of villagers streamed out to greet the new plane…well that’s icing on the cake.


     Our most sincere congratulations to JAARS for their field delivery of KODIAK s/n 008 to its operational base at Aiyura. Thank you for beginning the task of turning a whole new set of dreams into reality.
     For more information read Steve Ottaviano’s blog.
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