Daher Aircraft’s Kodiak 100 has flown into seven remote Idaho airstrips to assist the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as part of a collaboration with the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF).

Operating from Moose Creek Ranger Station, the four-day deployment involved 14 landings at backcountry sites that provide access for firefighting, forest health monitoring and search and rescue operations. The Daher-owned aircraft carried two USFS contract engineers, three RAF volunteers and twelve Forest Service firepits, each weighing around 80 pounds.

“Our Kodiak aircraft family is uniquely designed to meet the rigorous demands of such deployments, bringing short takeoff and landing performance, robust cargo capacity and excellent low-speed handling qualities together with rugged reliability,” says Daher CEO Nicolas Chabbert.

Daher Aircraft’s senior director of multi-mission aircraft and business development for the Americas, Paul Carelli, adds: “We flew to extremely remote locations where high elevations, short field lengths and blind approaches require an airplane that guarantees both performance and flexibility. The Kodiak’s short takeoff and landing capabilities, slow approach speeds and the designed-in resistance to stalls and spins make it ideal for these missions.”

Carelli notes that the Kodiak 100 and the larger Kodiak 900 handle 1,500-foot airstrips safely, even when fully loaded, and can carry higher payloads than other aircraft in their class.