Being stuck in place for a while has me getting back into X-Plane 11 and thanks to some upgrades from TrueEarth Washington and Reshade, I’m at a point where I’m happier with the looks of the sim which means that I can really enjoy the flying experience again and have some fun sightseeing. But I wanted a new aircraft to do that in and I stumbled onto Thranda Design’s Quest Kodiak. It’s a really cool aircraft in real life and the simulated version seems to live up to the part too! Here are some first impressions.
The modern bush-plane
There’s something about bushplanes. As a Canadian, I’ve heard many stories both historical and more recently of the kind of work that small planes flying in the far north do. Servicing towns and villages that have no other means of staying connected with outside supplies and services means air travel is vital and these smaller aircraft are workhorses for that kind of operation.
I didn’t really know I was looking for a plane that had that kind of capability but when I stumbled almost accidentally onto this aircraft, I quickly knew it was what I wanted to fly in X-Plane.
Quest Aircraft designed the Kodiak ground-up to be a utility workhorse that, when configured appropriately, can perform many different roles from passenger transport to cargo carrying. It has short takeoff and landing abilities and it can be configured with floats so it can be used as a seaplane.
That’s the real one…so how about X-Plane 11’s?
Lots of value
Configured with a near standard G1000 avionics package and possessing relatively easy to handle performance attributes, Thranda’s Quest Kodiak feels good to fly and its relatively peppy given the potential cargo or passenger loadout. But the place where this aircraft for X-Plane 11 really shines is in the value.
I’m trying not to buy too many X-Plane aircraft right now as I don’t know if I’ll stick with the sim when the new Flight Simulator comes out but at the same time I’m looking to have some fun right now and so value is essential. Here there appears to be plenty of value with the most recent 2.0 release of this aircraft coming with tons of options.
It can be configured as a cargo aircraft, an executive aircraft, it can have a cargo pod installed beneath it, it can have floats installed turning it into a seaplane, and the standard sized tires can be replaced with larger ones that are ideal for flying in and out of rough airstrips.
The aircraft is designed with short field capability and you can come to a halt in a surprisingly short distance. Small airstrips that are out of the way and off the beaten path are definitely doable with this aircraft which is really cool.
The configuration screen lets you choose from a variety of preset or custom paint schemes meaning you can really dress your aircraft up the way you want which is a really nice extra bonus feature. There’s a lot of extra here actually and that definitely helps to increase the value just a little bit more.
Version 2.0 of the aircraft feels like a mature aircraft in the X-Plane world and while I know there’s a reality expansion pack that adds more detailed operations, right now there’s very little for me to find lacking here. In-fact aside from one or two minor complaints I’m extremely happy with this purchase and I’ll be checking out more of its features including the sea plane operation as soon a I can.
Thranda Design’s Quest Kodiak is available on the X-Plane.org Store for $35.95 USD. I’ll definitely be writing more about it over time.
Stormbirds 
Nice plane.
I have a buddy who rents an office beside where we keep our equipment and he’s a dedicated X-Plane flyer. He started off in Montreal in a twin prop and decided to just keep going. Every time I see him, when he’s outside having a smoke, he tells me where he is. Last time it was in the middle of Buttfart, Nowhere, between Moscow and the Pacific. He’s working his way around the world.
I’d like to get X-Plane, but I can’t justify the expense while FS2020, and an upgrade, are in the works. A bit of a shame because it looks pretty good.
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I had started to do the same starting from Washington state in the default X-Plane demo location and then upgrading to the full X-Plane and flying up to Vancouver, over to Kamloops, Saskatoon, Chicago, Sarnia, Toronto Island, and eventually on to New York City. But I kind of got bored with looking at the same very generic scenery so I stopped.
Now I’m staying within smaller areas and enjoying the Orbx scenery pack for Washington (and a bit of Vancouver island).
I think I’ll resume the world tour with FS2020. I am going to have some fun comparison articles between the two when the time comes!
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I originally wanted the Cessna Caravan, but given Carenado’s reputation with flight dynamics, I never went with it. Got this at version 1, and even paid for the expansion pack with floats and skis. Been pleased with it – super easy to fly, highly detailed, and G1000 is nice.
Then the v2 version came out – a FREE update that also included the floats/skis, etc. Pretty great of Thranda to give that to us.
Also picked up the REP package for it since i like to torture myself and it’s been even better since then.
p.s.: Ironically, I later learned that Thranda did all the Carenado conversions to x-plane, so i probably could’ve gone with the Caravan right off the bat 😮
But, still no REP for the Caravan, so I feel better about having the Kodiak, anyway!
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I’ve been warned off of buying anything Carenado but it does seem like Thranda did good work with this module. Everything so far seems really good to me!
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