Kodiak announced their new 900 model

https://kodiak.aero/kodiak-900/

Improved airspeed 210 Kts
Wheel pants, cowl, fairings, more hp, 5 blade prop, more seating options

Looks like they let the TBM engineers loose on it, very cool. Read a comment that this is designed for a guy who already owns a Gulfstream, but needs a ride to the island strip.

Looks like a significant increase in speed over the 100, but...
At $3.5 million a copy, strong price tag.

So……..
Sold our 2020 G36
Bought 2021 Kodiak 100-series 3 w 320hrs
We have had it for about a month and it is a phenomenal plane.
A list of the “twices”. (Bonanza x 2)
1 Comfortable, the comfort in flight for pilot and passenger is phenomenal, cockpit has a lot of room, comfortable seats and two pilot doors. Pilots can easily walk to back of plane or change who is sitting in left seat. sound proofing insulation is great passenger can easily communicate without headsets. Passenger cargo door with stair is well designed even for large people. We bought a small first step for challenged people. Door locks x 10 better than Bonanza. Every time I close door I think “that is so awesome”
2 Safety Margin, with the belly pod it is very hard to get out of CG with baggage. We ran the charts on no pod Kodiaks and decided we had to have one or we would be restricted on load. (FYI doors on the pods are bigger than they look in pictures)
3 This plane is always a STOL plane even in normal operations. It just wants to fly.
4 The A/C heater works very good.
5 We never had problems starting 2 different G36’s but turbine start even easier
6 Insurance more expensive (x2) but for almost 3x time hull value. Also only took 10 hrs mentor time and Kodiak school (5 days in Spokane) to insure. Expect insurance to go down as time in frame goes up. Also fixed gear “discount” compared to bonanza.
7 Maintenance, don’t know for sure yet but expecting around x2.5 increase over G36’s. There are zero “timed” maintenance intervals besides fluid/filter changes.
8 Big. First words out of everybody’s mouth when they see it. (Even me every time Hagar door opens)
9 it slows down fast. With flaps and prop you can fly all aspects of landing pattern faster and slow down in short final. May or may not be your thing, but until you experience it……can be an asset if used correctly.
10 Avionics series 3 Cockpit G 1000 have some Kodiak designed safety features that aren’t on other planes. There is a rocker switch on panel that says “level” on it if pilot get disoriented or incapacitated you hit “level” and plane stabilizes. Also upgrade to G700 autopilot I think in series 2

On a 1-2 hour flight we “get there” about 5-15 minutes faster respectively because of rate of climb, descent and pattern speeds, generally have more miles available per pound of load with more safety margin.

Downsides
1 cost. (Haters )
2 tail stand is kind of a pain and not “cool” (corrected on Kodiak 900)
3 slow for the money, I am betting Kodiak implements a lot of the speed mods on the Kodiak 900 into the 100 on next series upgrade.
4 unpressurized for the money

Offset by
1 load
2 SAFETY MARGIN!!!! (For us at least)
3 comfort
4 smiles/mile
5 maintenance, insurance cost for this capable of a plane

I'm so happy you are enjoying your new aircraft. Ok, happy, and jealous! If I had that kind of cash the Kodiak would be on my very short list of aircraft to own (on amphibs likely).

I own one of the earlier designs from that same designer... He knows what he is doing and your description of "straightforward" when it comes to handling seems to be his hallmark.

Having spent time in the left seat in one of these birds, all I can say is that it feels like such an incredibly high quality aircraft that it seems to be a huge step up from any piston airplane. It feels so much like an airliner.

Wishing you many happy hours of Kodiak cruising!

For the passenger especially it has an airliner “feel” with the beneficial exception of lots more room with our Kodiak in the 8 seat or less configuration, if you turn all seats forward and all seats installed, it still has more room than an airliner and most jets that I have ridden in.
All seats have headset, usb,02 ports, adjustable rails, and high angle reclinable (very close to horizontal). It is more like flying first class, at least with the upgraded interior.
There is no flap, aileron flutter or skin flex that give you that light plane experience.

We all have limitations, what makes this plane doable for me is a great plane partner with whom I have owned 2 different G36 bonanzas, (we averaged 225 flight hrs/year on each) maintenance, insurance, safety. We looked at all the faster planes available and this is the only step up from a bonanza that made financial and operational sense for us and it was an easy step as a pilot.

Thank you

Do you have issues with exhaust fumes in the cabin of the Kodiak?

I ask because I got to fly in one about 2010 as part of another company’s competitor review, and it was totally unacceptable. I couldn’t stand it, and I was only on a <1 hour flight. A flight test engineer who had been on multiple flights that day literally went home sick from it.

I can’t imagine they could sell any of these if that specific airplane was “normal,” so I always assumed there was something wrong with it, but it was inspected several times over the days we had it on site with no issues found (door seals good, etc). This would have been a relatively new airplane too (only a few months after delivery).

If this issue were typical of the type, I would have expected Quest/Daher would have converted the exhaust to a single belly stack like the Caravan to keep it away from cabin points of entry.

Everything else about the airplane seemed quite good, but I just couldn’t get over how bad the exhaust fumes were and I can’t imagine any buyer finding that acceptable.

Phil

I don’t know which series had the fix for that, but the answer is no it is not an issue now.
I think the fix was the door seals that they put on. When you close the door the door closes loosely but at startup the seal inflates and the door becomes tight.

I demoed a series 2 about 4 years ago and it didn’t have that issue either, so probably a first model problem.

I wonder why a spring loaded starter switch vs a toggle that stays in start position until turned off? Kingair is not spring loaded to return to OFF position. Is it a single engine turbine vs twin issue in case it is bumped to start during flight and the generator is then offline?

Correct

Robert - some of us are simply not video and picture folks. I tend to be one of those who don't take and share videos. This having been said, if you ever feel like sharing videos and a few more pics of your Kodiak in operation, I know I'm not the only one who would enjoy seeing them.

Awesome airplane that looks like it is being very well loved!

I tried this is best I could do.
These are just screen shots of a video on my phone of a landing at a destination wedding in northeast Oregon. (Minam River Lodge) We did not own the plane at this time and it wasn’t our wedding.
But this plane was fully loaded with bride/groom friends and wedding stuff. (Heavy)
I wish I could post the videos. These planes are not small and this was a small strip in tight canyon. Strip was probably 3/8 mile long and had a curve in last 1/8 mile. Fly in or walk in only.

These are once again screenshots taken from video from inside the Kodiak
Landing at Minam River Lodge.
One of them the strip is circled in red
These are taken from a different Kodiak but same wedding it took 2 Kodiak 4 trips (8 loads total) to get everyone there and back. (32 people and luggage) for 3 days

Wow, that's a heck of a wedding location!

Thanks for posting these pics. They really show off the reasons to own a Kodiak. Yet further validation for this aircraft sitting right at the top of my list of dream aircraft acquisitions.

Now I'll just mutter to myself and pretend I hear PT6 noises the next time I crank up my Sportsman!

I would love to build a sportsman, stock I think it’s the best of its class/type. I am surprised there are not more of them built. I really got interested in them when they came out with the motor and prop options, I wanted to do a father/son build might do grandson build now.
My first plane was a 7KCAB Citabria, most fun I ever owned. I hardly ever landed it on paved runways and loved the aerobatics in it, also the climb and turn rate. Fun fun fun