Fedex C208 Drivers...
- Thread starter Stomp16
- Start date
Redline165
Well-Known Member
EAAASY plane to fly. Like said above. Its a 182 with less levers to mess with.
Only thing that drives me nuts is the fuel buzzer when a tank is off. Scares the crap outta me every time.
Only thing that drives me nuts is the fuel buzzer when a tank is off. Scares the crap outta me every time.
ChiefPilotISA
Well-Known Member
I just had a couple new hires come back from their initial training. While the ground training remains the same, the sim portion isn't what it used to be. This of course is due to the loss of all D level caravan sims in the crash. The staff at FSI is great and they're doing what they can to accommodate us and provide the best training possible with the equipment they have left.
Boris Badenov
Fortis Leader
Be careful in that frigging ice. I've never flown one, but I've been on the same frequency with people who were and were pooping their pampers more than once.
ctab5060X
Well-Known Member
I think all the FedEx Caravans are being converted to TKS.
If they are booted Caravans though, yes... be careful in your preflight when operating in forecasted icing conditions.
Stomp16
You mean Shennanigans?!?!
Yeah, we knew they lost all but the one old sim. We're flying 208's with 430/530 G600 and will be training in the sim with an 89B. Haven't seen an 89B since flight school in '01!
swisspilot
Well-Known Member
I actually don't agree with most of the comments above, yeah maybe the Caravan may look feel like a big 182/206 with a turbine engine...but in my own experience it doesn't really fly like one. From my experience it flies like a medium size twin: it is fairly stable, it needs runway and speed, reduction of power creates a lot of drag and you don't want to fly it anywhere near stall speed.
Many say it is very easy to fly, honestly what makes an aircraft easy or hard is the environment it is flown in, the type of weather, the terrain and the airports you operate to and from.
Here the C208 is the most popular airplane on the ramp (50% of the country GA fleet), while it is easy to fly in and out of a paved 3000+ and around the pattern, it is one of the most challenging aircraft to be used in the Bush, because it is actually a very limited bush airplane, the ASA book says it spot on "Cessna's Swiss Army Knife with Wings!"....well with a Swiss army knife you can do a lot of things, you have a knife, a screwdriver, a can opener...but none of them are actually very good tools but get the job done, just like the caravan. This is probably while it is so popular and profitable for operators. Flying a Caravan here isn't easy at all, especially the -B during the wet season when you have to stay centerline with max reverse (on 1200 feet strips/ 15 feet wide)...this challenges make it actually a less boring plane.
Many say it is very easy to fly, honestly what makes an aircraft easy or hard is the environment it is flown in, the type of weather, the terrain and the airports you operate to and from.
Here the C208 is the most popular airplane on the ramp (50% of the country GA fleet), while it is easy to fly in and out of a paved 3000+ and around the pattern, it is one of the most challenging aircraft to be used in the Bush, because it is actually a very limited bush airplane, the ASA book says it spot on "Cessna's Swiss Army Knife with Wings!"....well with a Swiss army knife you can do a lot of things, you have a knife, a screwdriver, a can opener...but none of them are actually very good tools but get the job done, just like the caravan. This is probably while it is so popular and profitable for operators. Flying a Caravan here isn't easy at all, especially the -B during the wet season when you have to stay centerline with max reverse (on 1200 feet strips/ 15 feet wide)...this challenges make it actually a less boring plane.
swisspilot
Well-Known Member
I did my sim with Pan Am, and actually like it better then training provided by Flight Safety (we go there for the Twin Otter). Pan Am is more relaxed and you learn a lot from the individual experience of the instructors, the chief pilot there has 12+ years of caravan and fed ex experience, training is one to one and all the guys there add a little extra to the training material....while FSI instructors need to follow strict SOPs and often don't teach you things for liability fear.
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
I've not gotten into the gnarly stuff yet, but word on the street is if you strap a couple hundred extra ponies on the front (like, say, a #tpe331 #flatprops) it does as well as any other booted airplane.
But yeah to the OP, easiest airplane you'll ever fly.
swisspilot
Well-Known Member
I hope the fire one is not as loud as it is the one in the sim!
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swisspilot
Well-Known Member
Well, not sure about other conversions with the garret, but the Supervan is not IFR certified.
We have two of them.
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Having nearly equal amounts of time in the PA31 and C208, I don't agree with this at all. Caravan is not nearly as slippery as a PA31, much easier to coax into the air, and handles much better below 100 knots. Also in the PA31 you have to continuously pay attention to engine management, and there are only a few idiot lights. Caravan engine management is easy peasy especially in ours with SRL and TTL. On top of that, there are all sorts of idiot lights to jog your memory.
Also the caravan handles much better at high gross weights and aft CGs than the Navajo.
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Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Maybe it's not in South America, but I assure you that it is very much IFR certified in the US.
ctab5060X
Well-Known Member
Eh... It's a big Cessna. Flies the same as any other fixed gear high wing Cessna product. I agree that it is stable, but it doesn't need much runway, and airspeed in only an issue when it comes icing season. As far as flying near stall speed... I'll fly a Caravan as slow as it will go any day of the week over some medium sized twins.
The Caravan is easy to fly. Heck, almost any airplane is easy to fly... just look how little time new pilots have when they solo for the first time.
The procedures and challenges of different environments, weather, terrain, and airports are become difficult... not the flying of the airplane.
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
While many people think of the 208 as a bush plane, it was never designed to be one. It will fly in and out of almost any GA airstrip in the US but when you start talking about 1500' grass strips or off airport ops, the Caravan was never designed to go there.
1500' of mud or gravel bars is the domain of Porters or even Kodiaks. I'll reserve judgment on the Garavan as I've never flown one.
Re: Ice,
The boots on the Caravan do what they were designed to to, buy you time to get out, nothing more nothing less. Doesn't matter that you have a turbine engine, you still don't have the airspeed to blow off the ice or the power to climb above. As soon as you see your airspeed bleeding off, pop the boots and start executing your plan to get out of the icing conditions.
If you camp out in icing conditions in ANY airplane with boots you are asking for trouble. Some do better than others, but the basic rule applies.
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Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Correct sir. If they were building a bush plane from the start they would have given it a lot more grunt. 675 hp isn't a lot on an airplane that grosses out at 9000 lbs. The various up engine options do a lot to address that issue but I don't know how they do in reality as we don't really do any legit bush flying.
swisspilot
Well-Known Member
I guess this applies mostly to our operation and the fact that I operate into the same places with other airplanes: C206 and the Twin Otter. When operating the caravan at similar load %s you really need to look for the speed to get off the ground, and it uses both for takeoff and landing more runway then any bush airplane that operates here (the Twin Otter and the C206 somehow will always make it off the ground), the Supervan does a bit better but the only real difference you feel it once you are airborne, even at MTOW that thing really climbs. When flying into a bush strip with little room for go around, loaded, you can't afford to be slow in the Caravan, we land on the horn with most of the other planes, and sometimes the horn is on on the flare feet before the runway's threshold, you really can't do this safely in the Caravan. Lets not even talk about coming in high-power with high angle attack.....Same thing when flying into tight valleys it just doesn't turn downwind to final like most bush planes can...I'm fairly new on this plane but I could bring you many more reports of 10K hours on C208 bush pilots we have in the company. The C208 was also not really designed for strips with slope.