Cessna 208 Caravan Amphibian

The big, benign bush-plane is as light on the controls as a 172, says Peter Turner

TWO PASSIONS THAT I have been able to indulge since the age of fourteen are flying and sailing. Invited to flight test the amphibious version of the C208, I was over the moon. The aircraft, N5263S, was on its 2001 European tour and Pilot was allotted a half-day slot before it left Cranfield for the Paris Air Show.

The immediate impression was of an imposingly big bird. Despite its numerous, float-related struts and wires it looked purposefully elegant--even out of water. Sitting high on its huge, amphibious floats, the Caravan dwarfed everything around it.

As befits a bush plane, the Caravan has simple systems with back-ups. The flight controls, including the trim system, are manually operated through mechanical linkages and with the exception of the spoilers are entirely conventional.

The airframe is fitted with the incredibly reliable Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6A-114A producing 675 hp and driving a McCauley metal prop. Engine controls are standard PT6 with the exception of an 'emergency power lever'. Normally, in the event of a pneumatic failure in the fuel control unit, the engine would go to minimum idle setting, the power lever would be useless and the pilot would have an adrenaline rush. On the Caravan, the emergency power lever is used to restore and control the power enabling flight to continue and negating the need for a change of underwear for the pilot.

Flaps are electric and the brakes and retractable gear are hydraulic. There are two hydraulic pumps to raise and lower the gear which, with its six wheels, takes a seemingly endless thirty seconds to achieve. It pays not to leave the gear selection too late on the Caravan when landing on terra firma. In the unlikely event of both pumps failing the gear can be pumped down using the handpump located between the two crew seats. It takes 500 cycles to pump the wheels up and 475 to pump them down--I managed to resist trying this out. Should all hydraulic fluid be lost, the amphibian can be landed on a hard surface with, in the words of the POH, 'little or no damage to the floats'--some floats!

Electrical power is provided by a 24 volt battery, which is kept charged by a 200 amp, engine-driven, starter/generator. As a back-up '63S is equipped with an optional, engine-driven alternator, which automatically kicks in if the primary system fails.

Previous Page | View full list of Flight Tests