| Author | Message | ||
     Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 73 Registered: 03-2003 |
http://caravan.cessna.com/happytrails/index.html I was flipping through my latest Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association magazine and about shat myself when I saw this ad. The Cessna Caravan happens to be my favorite aircraft and of coarse I'm a bit LR obsessed. The two merged is awesome. The print ad has the words "happy trails" at the bottom. | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 734 Registered: 09-2002 |
That is pretty neat. Would be pretty cool if it was poster size or something. | ||
| Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Senior Member Username: Pmatusov Post Number: 1035 Registered: 09-2002 |
awesome now I want a Cessna... | ||
| Glenn Guinto (Glenn) Senior Member Username: Glenn Post Number: 739 Registered: 02-2002 |
But when you click on the defender/cessna picture, you see a suburban.  Glenn | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 74 Registered: 03-2003 |
I e-mailed their marketing department hoping to get a full size poster of the ad. The funny thing is that Cessna always advertised the Caravan with the Chevy Avalanche. I have a couple of real photos of missionaries in Africa loading a Caravan with 110's next to it. | ||
| Paul D. Morgan (V22guy) Dweb Lounge Member Username: V22guy Post Number: 1868 Registered: 02-2002 |
I got my copy of AOPA last week and noticed the Caravan / Defender ad. Very cool. | ||
| Matthew A. Barnes (Discoveryxd) New Member Username: Discoveryxd Post Number: 24 Registered: 08-2003 |
Wouldn't it be nice to have both of those! Cool pic. | ||
| Paul D. Morgan (V22guy) Dweb Lounge Member Username: V22guy Post Number: 1870 Registered: 02-2002 |
The Cessna Caravan boat plane is my favorite. What runway? I don't need no stinkin runway. You can load a jet ski and tons of camping gear in that thing and fly down to Cuba to camp off some beach. | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 76 Registered: 03-2003 |
I used to fly a Cessna 206 Amphib. Basically the smaller cousin to the C208 (caravan) amphib. One of the coolest parts about flying them is taxing on the ground. A Caravan Amphib pilot sits at the same height as a MD-80 pilot, some 17ft off the ground. You wouldn't believe the attention you get flying them off the water. Amphibs are the ultimate go anywhere vehicle. | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 77 Registered: 03-2003 |
Actually, the regular 208 can always be improvised as a sort of "floatplane"... http://www.caravanpilots.com/208splash.jpg And just when you thought you had a bad day... http://www.caravanpilots.com/Bad_day_1.jpg | ||
| Tommy Dougherty (Skydiver) Member Username: Skydiver Post Number: 143 Registered: 03-2002 |
My home dropzone just brought in a grand caravan for us to jump out of last weekend, and we're going to have it till November. This is one powerful plane. I think the pilot was talking 675hp engine. The prop is HUGE. You would not believe what the prop blast from this beast feels like when hanging outside the plane @ 13,500 ft. | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 78 Registered: 03-2003 |
I hope for your sake they bought a new or well taken care of 208. Jump planes are some of the most unmaintained aircraft flying. I know of at least one very serious accident involving a jump 208. I told a very experienced skydiver and pilot once that I'd never jump out of a perfectly good airplane. He replied, "so what makes you think it's perfectly good." They are powerful compared to a piston single but actually they are a pretty underpowered turbine. The aircraft can hold nearly the people of a King Air yet the King Air has the same PT6 engine x2. There are some people who have modified them to have a 800hp turbine. Most of those are amphibs because you need every once of power you can get on the water. I think a normal 675 bhp 208 can get off the water in 8-10 seconds. What makes them great is there ruggedness and simplicity. They really are the defenders of aircraft. | ||
| Tommy Dougherty (Skydiver) Member Username: Skydiver Post Number: 144 Registered: 03-2002 |
Ian, We actually 'had' a king air... but the pilot had to do a go around on final due to a 152 taking off w/o a radio call, and when he came back in, he forgot to put the landing gear back down and slid it in on it's belly. Not a pretty sight. The owners of the dropzone don't screw around with poorly maintained aircraft. The dz owned the king air, but are leasing this grand caravan for now. Our king air was able to take 14 jumpers, and the grand caravan can do 17. We had a king air B90 with the bigger (otter) engines. I did notice that the grand caravan can take off using about 1/2 the runway as opposed to the king air. Well, I'm off to the dz now. Have a great weekend. -Tommy | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 233 Registered: 05-2003 |
BEAUTIFUL Gallery!! I liked the jeep shot best... maybe someone can do cut and paste and put Land Rover in jeeps place?? Gee whiz, those other shots sure were a bad day!! I hate to be on the hunt for insurance after that... yikes I still want cargo plane. | ||
| Brad W. Boyd (Bwboyd87) New Member Username: Bwboyd87 Post Number: 27 Registered: 04-2003 |
Ian, It is so ironic that so many LR enthusiasts (whether they realize it or not) associate with aviation and even more specifically the Caravan! The two complement each other so well and I am impressed that the ad guys picked-up on it! What type of 206 flying did you do and where (all float, Alaska)? Do you still fly? As a former airline guy now flying a Falcon for a big company, I know I will always miss the good old days of flying low and slow. A Grand Caravan Combi with Whipline (sp) floats has been my all time dream plane even though I never got the float rating. My second favorite airplane is a an airplane that I HAVE flown: the J-3 Cub. I could never get enough time in that (it never gets old). All I know is this...when there's a tdi Defender in the driveway and a Caravan tied to the dock out back, I've got it all! Thanks, Brad | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 79 Registered: 03-2003 |
I totally agree with you Brad that a Amphib Caravan and a tdi Defender would be total bliss. I'm working on my CFI at the moment. Eventually, I'd like to fly a 208. Although, I'm not crazy about flying cargo single pilot IFR in hard IMC. Seems most van jobs in this country are that kind of flying. As I'm sure you know things are so bad at the moment, it's going to be really hard to even get a good CFI job. I have about 400 hrs TT. Roughly 13 hours PIC in the 206 amphib. The 206 was owned by three guys who were LR lovers. So much so they named the company, Air-Rover. Only one had enough Amphib time to fly and instruct in the aircraft. He dissappeared and never showed up for his job flying a charter citation. It's alot more complicated of a story but he is gone and they had to sell the aircraft. I had planned to get 50 hrs in the plane and was about to take my checkride when he left. I loved flying the plane. I have alot of stories from only 13 hours flying it. It was based on land so I had a fair amount of experience landing on hardsurface. Landing it at night was quite the experience. Crosswinds were a real bitch. It's basically a giant shopping cart with wings. Hope is not lost though, I should be flying it with it's new owners in September. Unfortunetly I just have enough cash to get the rating done. I blew most of my money on Multi-time. I've never flown a J3, wish I could get my tailwheel endorsement sometime. How do you like flying the Falcon? They certaintly look badass. Cheers, Ian | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 80 Registered: 03-2003 |
Oh yeah, I flew the 206 out of Spirit of St. Louis (SUS). I normally fly out of there, I live in St. Louis. | ||
| R. B. Bailey (Rover50987) Senior Member Username: Rover50987 Post Number: 636 Registered: 07-2002 |
If you subscribe to AOPA you might be able to see this if the archive goes back enough... www.aopa.org/pilot/links/links9909.shtml | ||
| Brad W. Boyd (Bwboyd87) New Member Username: Bwboyd87 Post Number: 28 Registered: 04-2003 |
Keep with it Ian! When I started out in aviation back in '92 I had just left the Marine Corps (I was not a pilot) and the airline industry was on its ass then too. I borrowed a ton of money and it took me almost 2 years to get "hirable" by a commuter, but it actually worked. So many people just gave up and left it all behind, but those that kept at it did quite well. I have lived the ups and downs (mostly ups) since then but nothing beats being the first flight out of a quiet airport and catching the sunrise just as it comes up (of course driving Clifford, my '67 IIa 109 SW ranked right up there too, but I sold him :-( when I lost my airline job). I am very supportive of the USA and normally would not endorse products from countries that stand against us (LIKE FRANCE!), but the Falcon 2000 (or any Falcon, so I hear) is as awesome as it gets! It's the only 2 engine corporate jet Dassault makes now, but it beats the snot out of flying that 25 year old 737! I have corporate time in Citations, and the Hawker 1000 too. I don't know how tied-down you are in STL (or SUS rather), but you ARE a Land Rover guy. Have you considered going up to the bush in Alaska and trolling for an amphib job? I don't want to make it sound like a sure thing, but I took a flight school friend up there (Juneau) a few year ago and they needed alot of seasonal pilots. Once you get a few hundred Alaska hours under your belt, you can work there all year round or at least start building those hours. Guys with your time were gassing planes at the FBOs and every chance they got were hopping in the right seat of the Otters and Beavers in the charter. After a few months, they needed a full timer co-pilot and, bam, you're a full time amphib pilot! I will definately do this in my next life...with Clifford as my trusty ride. Good Luck! Brad | ||
| Brad W. Boyd (Bwboyd87) New Member Username: Bwboyd87 Post Number: 29 Registered: 04-2003 |
Keep with it Ian! When I started out in aviation back in '92 I had just left the Marine Corps (I was not a pilot) and the airline industry was on its ass then too. I borrowed a ton of money and it took me almost 2 years to get "hirable" by a commuter, but it actually worked. So many people just gave up and left it all behind, but those that kept at it did quite well. I have lived the ups and downs (mostly ups) since then but nothing beats being the first flight out of a quiet airport and catching the sunrise just as it comes up (of course driving Clifford, my '67 IIa 109 SW ranked right up there too, but I sold him :-( when I lost my airline job). I am very supportive of the USA and normally would not endorse products from countries that stand against us (LIKE FRANCE!), but the Falcon 2000 (or any Falcon, so I hear) is as awesome as it gets! It's the only 2 engine corporate jet Dassault makes now, but it beats the snot out of flying that 25 year old 737! I have corporate time in Citations, and the Hawker 1000 too. I don't know how tied-down you are in STL (or SUS rather), but you ARE a Land Rover guy. Have you considered going up to the bush in Alaska and trolling for an amphib job? I don't want to make it sound like a sure thing, but I took a flight school friend up there (Juneau) a few year ago and they needed alot of seasonal pilots. Once you get a few hundred Alaska hours under your belt, you can work there all year round or at least start building those hours. Guys with your time were gassing planes at the FBOs and every chance they got were hopping in the right seat of the Otters and Beavers in the charter. After a few months, they needed a full timer co-pilot and, bam, you're a full time amphib pilot! I will definately do this in my next life...with Clifford as my trusty ride. Good Luck! Brad | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 248 Registered: 05-2003 |
I know FOR SURE the why the link between Land Rover and Flying. Until I went off road in mine, I did not know it was possible to have so much fun ON the ground!! Do all of you fly fixed wing?? If any of you has a cargo plane, come get me, my dogs, and my rover to go see neat places. We can drive my rover on the ground whenever we get there!! Or, better yet, can anyone turn my rover into a chitty chitty bang bang rover prototype?? | ||
| Michael Noe (Noee) Senior Member Username: Noee Post Number: 738 Registered: 03-2002 |
Along these lines, we flew down to Elkin, NC (ZEF) this weekend and were just hanging out when some t-storms came in and forced a Citation Ultra (?) to land short of home. After waiting it out, the pilots (flying for a large home fix-up company) asked if we'd like to ride home with them and drive a couple of rental cars back to ZEF. It was my first trip in a biz-jet, got to sit in the "jump seat", a real thrill, especially with no load and only 300 gallons of fuel on takeoff. The Citation was on it's way out as they are moving up to the Falcon 50EX, two new ones in the hangar just waiting to take over. Cool stuff, you never know what'll happen if you just hang out at an airport for a while. | ||
| Paul D. Morgan (V22guy) Dweb Lounge Member Username: V22guy Post Number: 1884 Registered: 02-2002 |
Yeah Mike, A Citation X that can cruise at M.81 at Angels 41 is pretty damn cool in my book. Last May, I got to play with an F-15 in England. When I fired that thing up for checks, I was amazed at the power. It was like having two rockets strapped to your butt. | ||
| Brad W. Boyd (Bwboyd87) New Member Username: Bwboyd87 Post Number: 30 Registered: 04-2003 |
Howdy Paul, I got a ride in a Citation X a few years ago...sweet! Max cruise at lower altitude is .92! The wings are raked back so far you can tie a string from from tip to tip aft of the fuselage. That F-15 is quite a bird, but I would like to see how the Super Hornet performs. When I was in K-Bay ('88-'92) I spent some time in the new Hornet simulator doing air traffic control for VMFA-232 and VMFA-212. I just wanted a real ride in the D model! S/F, Brad | ||
| Ian Kreidich (Ian95rrc) Member Username: Ian95rrc Post Number: 82 Registered: 03-2003 |
Hey Brad, I have definitely considered heading to Alaska to look for some employment. At the moment my contacts up there are saying there aren't any openings for low time guys. I think once I meet 135 IFR minimums I'll consider it more seriously. It would definitely be an adventure. I'm not sure if things are getting better or worse at the moment. The time requirements seem to keep going up but it seems there are more jobs out there than last year. I have a close CFII friend who keeps nipping at the requirements. First it was 1200 TT 50 Multi, now they want 1500-2000 TT 200+ Multi. |
