#12 2017 Cessna Caravan For Sale - Quick Tour and Flight

Hey it's Rich back with you for another video and today's video I'm going to make is going to be on a Cessna Caravan and not only the Caravan but also a specific airplane that we have for sale which is right behind me, it's serial number 608, it's a 2017 short Caravan with G1000 NXI and I believe 2017 was the first year they came out with NXI and so we're going to kind of be focusing on this specific airplane because it's for sale and also just an overview of the Caravan, we'll go on a little flight, look at some speed performance, fuel burns and give you a good overview of the Cessna Caravan. I did a video, I think it was the first video I did was on a Caravan and we took another pilot with us and focused on transitioning and this video is going to be more of an overview of the airplane. So Cessna makes two variants of the Caravan, the short version which is the straight 208 which is this airplane and then the Grand Caravan which is now called the 208B Grand Caravan with an EX after it which the EX is the version where they extended the horsepower up to 867. This airplane has 675 horsepower, PT6, everything else is the same except for the engine horsepower and the length of the fuselage and then the gross weight of the Grand is 8750 versus 8000 on the short airplane. We'll do another video on the Grand Caravan later. This particular airplane has all of the options as far as oversized tires, it has air conditioning, it has an oxygen system, it has the TKS anti-ice system and then the options that you would get in it from there are like synthetic vision which this one has, TASB terrain, GTS 800 standard traffic, it has the XM satellite weather and entertainment, radar, and so those are the options that most people get but not everybody has a full array of the G1000 upgrades. And those are all, the avionics are all pretty easy to add if you don't get it. So things like air conditioning and oxygen systems have become more difficult to get after the airplane is manufactured. One thing I didn't mention as well is the 300 amp starter generator which most of them get as well and it's a really good option in my opinion. So that's kind of an overview of the airplane, again this is a 2017, we're asking 1.8 million dollars for this airplane, it's got about 450 hours total time on it. And the rest of the video we're going to talk about flying characteristics, we'll take it up and we'll just do some performance shots and give you a good idea of how the airplane flies and what the performance is. We're taxiing out to runway 26L at Long Beach and as I mentioned earlier, some of the options on the G1000, so if we go to the map, section on the MFD, so you have the main map, the traffic, dedicated traffic map, so that's the GTS 800 component, you've got radar, this has the Garmin GWX, I can't remember the numbers, GWX 800 maybe radar, and we go to XM, and the last one is TAWS-B terrain, so those are pretty much all the options that this package can get as far as the avionics goes. Alright, so we're climbing out over the harbor here off of Long Beach Airport, about 4,000 feet, I'm going to go up to 5,500 and we'll show basically, it's a fairly low altitude in cruise, but we'll show some performance numbers and fuel burns at 5,500 feet. But again, to reemphasize the caravan, this airplane has 3,200 pounds of useful load and 2,200 pounds of fuel, so the full fuel payload is 1,000 pounds. Gives you a lot of range, a lot of endurance, so most people operate the airplane with 1,000 pounds under, save 1,000 pounds of fuel and use it for people, generally 3 hours of flying and you have 2,000 pounds of payload, which makes it a very utilitarian type of airplane. All the seats can come out very quickly if you need to take just cargo or if you need just a couple of seats, you can put a couple of seats in it or however many you need and interchange seats for cargo space. It's got a big cargo door that's made to fit a four-foot pallet in, so you can load in with it. The airplane was built originally for cargo and then it also has a passenger door, so it can accommodate both. You don't have to climb up the cargo door to accommodate passengers. It's a fully certified known ice airplane, so you can fly in icing with the TKS system. It's an anti-ice system, so the idea is you turn it on before you get into icing conditions and it keeps the ice off the airplane, the propeller, the windscreen, the struts, the leading edges of the wing, horizontal stab, vertical stab, it's all protected space. It makes it a really good de-ice package for this airplane. Here we are leveling at 5,500 feet and you see that the G-1000 gives you a max continuous torque blue bug there, so that's what I've got set. We've got flaps up and everything is set for cruise. We're still accelerating, but already we're coming up on 160 knots of true airspeed on about 50 gallons per hour of fuel. Nice, stable, smooth ride and now we're up. I'm expecting we'll probably get up to 167 to 170 knots of true airspeed at this altitude. Caravan is one of the easiest airplanes, honestly, that I've ever flown. It's very forgiving, it flies slow really well. The turbine engine is more difficult as a transition from a piston engine, but once you understand how to operate a turbine engine, it's very simple. I showed you the max continuous torque, so setting power for cruise is as simple as bringing the torque lever back to match the blue bug. You don't mess with mixture. You can pull the propeller back, but most operators that operate this airplane run it at 1,900 RPMs, which is full forward and that's the max limit on RPMs. That's where we leave it for the most part. The stalls, the slow flight, all that kind of stuff is very conventional. The first notch of flap speed was really nice. It's 175 knots, which is red line. You can put approach flaps or 10 degrees of flaps out at any speed as long as you're within the limitations of the airspeed. It's very easy to slow down. The same with the prop. When you pull the power to idle, and I'll show you a little bit of that when we go back and land, the prop gets into flat pitch and it really slows the airplane down. As I always tell people, it's very tough to be too high or too fast in a caravan because you get full flaps in and power to idle and it slows down very, very fast to the point that you've got to really watch it get too slow very quickly. Again, transitioning from really any airplane to a caravan for any pilot is really a simple transition. That's why I think they're so popular. It's a single engine turboprop. The Kodiak is another airplane that's in the same category. I looked online before I left and there's a 2017 Kodiak with a little less time than this one that's $100,000 more. Basically the same equipment. The only difference you're really going to get with the Kodiak is you're going to get a cargo pod on that airplane. Most short caravans don't have cargo pods. We feel like we've got plenty of space in the back to accommodate that you don't really need a cargo pod. They're priced similar. The Kodiak has 750 horsepower. This is 675. There are a few differences. Four blade prop versus a three blade prop. There are some differences, but they're more similar than they are different. One of the big differences is the caravan's been out since 1985 and it's got millions of high utilization operating hours on it. The cost of operation, reliability, those kinds of things, you've got to give that to the caravan. It's just the number of years it's been in operation. It doesn't mean the Kodiak's a bad airplane. It just means it doesn't have the time in the market with really high utilization operations. Coming back into Long Beach. One of the things that I really like about the caravan's total picture of this airplane, the PT6 motor, G1000 avionics, a basic airframe, fixed gear, non-pressurized. It's a lot like a 182 that's got a lot more capability. Cabin, seating, cargo capability, but the flying characteristics are similar. It's just like a 182 in that regard. Once you learn, again, the turbine engine, but once you learn it, it's actually simpler. Like I said, it's a transition that's more difficult is the right word. I'm not even sure it is. I'm doing 150 knots right here now and I'm almost to the downwind, but I'm not worried because I can slow it down so fast. It's so easy to slow down. That's one of the great things about the airplane is the wide range of operating. It's not super fast, but it's a pretty good cross-country airplane. It also has very, very good short-field performance. Heavy, gross weight. I'm talking gross weight, short-field performance, not just when it's light. In fact, you really don't even notice when it's heavy. Tango Papa's signal hill for the left downwind. Clear to land. Traffic, 11 o'clock, low, less than one mile. A lot of traffic calls being made by the traffic system out here, but that's normal for Long Beach Airport. Traffic, 2 o'clock. The good news is a lot of people out flying and a lot of activity. Here's downwind to beam. I'm at 125 now and everything's set for landing. I'm clear to land, so I'm going to bring the power back and get some flaps in and I'm going to make a fairly short approach here. If you were in the airplane right now, you could really feel it slowing down because the prop is really coming back. I've lost about 30 knots in a span of about eight seconds. I'm going to end up having to add power. Final's clear. Now I'm 90 knots, full flaps, and I'm pretty much right where I want to be. I'm not even using full, I don't even have the power at idle. VASI says I'm high. I can easily go down here and probably make that first turn off on 26L. I'm still high on the VASIs. I'm losing speed at this steep deck angle. If I wanted to make that Fox 2, I could. I'm not even using brakes here, and I'm not even going to have to use brakes. And no beta, we have beta. If I wanted to make that first turn off... Pacific Air Center, Freight Tango Papa. Short field takeoff and landing performance in this airplane just honestly doesn't get any better, I don't think, in any airplane. When you contrast it with the Kodiak, if you look at the book numbers, they have a little bit better takeoff performance. But how much do you really need? We're talking less than 2,000 feet, pretty much a problem. Okay, back on the ground at Long Beach after the caravan flight. Nice little flight, I hope it showed you some basic flight characteristics, performance, and just a good overview of this airplane. Again, this is serial number 604. It's a 2017 short caravan. It's for sale. The price is $1.8 million, asking price. And it's going to come with a fresh annual. We're just getting ready to put it in for an annual inspection. And it's a really great airplane. One owner, I know the owner well, he's taking great care of it. It's like new, really, inside and out. And if you have any questions about this airplane, my contact information is in the description. And for that matter, any caravan. We've sold a lot of caravans. We have flight training. We have a really good maintenance service center that specializes in caravans. So this is an airplane that we know a lot about. We just have a lot of history with it. So if you're interested in any caravan or this airplane, please don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email or text message. And thanks for watching the video. I hope you enjoyed it.