Traveling From one part of Africa to another can sometimes still involve lengthy air trips via Europe; railway line gauges are not always compatible which makes the overland movement of goods difficult and there are no trans-African super highways to ease the flow of traffic. Inadequate infrastructure, navigation aids and inferior air traffic control makes African aviation particularly challenging.

The great African vision of building a strong, economically vibrant and peaceful continent remains a distant dream unless the potential capacity of aviation can be harnessed. Could Cessna’s Grand Caravan EX provide one of the keys to unlocking Africa’s socio-economic potential?

The new Caravan 208B EX was dispatched by Cessna to Africa on a demonstration tour and provided for evaluation by Cessna’s Southern African distributor, Johannesburg-based Comair as part of a worldwide tour. Ferried directly from the factory in the USA to Europe for the Aero 2013 Friedrichshafen air show in late April, it was thereafter ferried to Lanseria International Airport for demonstration.

On completion of the South African demonstration leg, the aircraft was scheduled to be handed over to the distributor for the other African countries, Africair. A similar demonstration program me was planned for Angola then continuing up the West coast of Africa, through Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

With the aircraft in many ways almost everything aft of the fire wall, identical to its predecessor, the question was, so what’s new? Well, the additional power and improved performance had been well reported in aviation magazines, but to really understand the impact of the modifications, the best means by which to demonstrate the changes, would require it to be experienced by operators and aspirant owners in the region. The actual improvements in takeoff and climb performance would speak more effectively than any written report from the factory.

Cessna’s engineers conceived the Caravan during the 1980s while exploring possible follow-on products for the company’s successful, world renowned line of single engine utility aircraft such as the 180,185,206 and 207 series, which had sold about 18000 units. Field reports indicated that operators appreciated the hard-working high-wing Cessna’s, but that some aircraft were getting rather “long in the tooth” and were ready for replacement. Furthermore, in many regions where utility operators practiced their trade, aviation gasoline (avgas) was hard, if not impossible, to obtain. A turbine -powered single, seemed like a natural design change.

A little known fact is that the Caravans pedigree stems from Russell Bannock, former president of de Havilland of Canada, and Richard Hiscocks, DHCs former vice president, engineering, who had extensive experience in the challenges facing utility operators, particularly those flying DHC-2 Beavers, DHC-3 Otters and DHC-6 Twin Otters in remote regions. Missions requirements such as optimizing space, volume, larger fuel tanks for operators who flew in remote areas and design changes in undercarriage design to preclude collapse during rough field operations.

Thus, the first single-engine turbo prop to be designed and certificated for civil use by a major US general aviation manufacturer, was launched in the latter part of 1981.By December 1982,just 51 working weeks after the go-ahead, a prototype was flying, and on October 22,1984 ,the Cessna 208 received its FAR Part 23 certification. In February 1985, the first Caravan 1, a Model 208A, was delivered to Federal Express, and as the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

Certified for single pilot operations in various roles, missions included commuter airlines, cargo, business, travel, tourism, medevac, aerial photography, geophysical exploration, parachute operations, and even some Para-military special missions such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and search and rescue.

Initially sized by the requirement to operate with amphibious floats and carry 55-gallon drums or large sheets of building materials, the Grand Caravan EX is relatively big for this class of aircraft. Its wingspan of 15,9 metres is wide while the length has grown to 12,7 metres in an effort to increase cabin volume .In addition to the pilot and/or co-pilot ,the 1,6m wide cabin can seat eight to twelve passengers in two-abreast benches plus two single seats, or four rows of single seats on either side of a centre aisle.

Additional certifications were subsequently issued for arctic operations which included among others, the fitment of skis; enlarged tyres for use on the less developed landing strips, and even floats for amphibian operations.

Enter the “EX”

Following on from the Caravan 1 series, the Grand Caravan is now being superseded by Cessna’s latest offering, the Grand Caravan EX. There were those that thought that there was nothing much more one could do to improve on the Grand Caravan design.However, Cessnas commitment to increased research and development spends, despite a depressed market worldwide, has shown that innovative engineering and modern technology can continue to increase platform capabilities.

For those charter pilots operating in Africa, respect for the Caravan is legendary so what could Cessna engineers “pull out of the hat” to make the aircraft even more suitable for rugged operations worldwide?

There is hardly a pilot in the world who will complain about “too much” excess power, so it was not surprising to find that the design engineers have focused on improved engine technologies that have been developed in the recent past and, in so doing, effectively extended the scope of applications in “hot and high” and remote location operations.

By late 2012, Cessna had earned FAA approval for its newest model, the Grand Caravan EX, powered by the new Pratt & Whitney PTA6A-140, which increased shaft horsepower by 28% from 675 shp flat rated to 867 shp at 1900 rpm.Following certification testing, Cessna reported that the Grand Caravan EX had exceeded performance expectations by a considerable margin, delivering a 38% improvement in rate of climb compared to the Grand Caravan, this against a 20% increase that had been expected.

Such performance benefits would obviously be a major advantage for operators conducting “hot and high” missions while a 20KTAS speed improvement at 10000 feet cruise would be most welcome for the various missions defined for the Grand Caravan EX.

From a design perspective, the extra power would also provide greater excess specific shaft horsepower to allow the Caravan the kind of performance reserve necessary for the big floats the amphibian needs, and the additional climb performance would serve it well operating out of smaller lakes and bays. Most importantly, the benefit to the commercial operator would be to spend more time in the air moving cargo, moving people, and in these challenging times, generating revenue.

Design Mission

From day one, the Grand Caravan EX was engineered for rugged missions with high payloads and short, rough runway operations.

For this mission, such a “workhorse” would ideally display agile handling qualities associated with smaller aircraft and be able to take off and land in relatively short distances from airstrips typically found in remote areas under high density altitude conditions.

Building on from the simplicity and utility which has characterized Cessna’s high-wing, single-engine, turbine-powered Caravans, the Grand Caravan EX offers an optional underbelly pod capable of holding 3, 2 m3 of cargo ( 494 kilograms max) ,loadable through four separate doors. With up to 9,6m3 of cabin space available, 12 passengers or a combination of freight and passengers can be accommodated.

It is important to understand that unlike several utility designs that preceded the Caravan 1, it does not feature STOL performance .In fact, Cessna politely resisted any attempts by Bannock and Hiscocks to complicate or otherwise restrict the Caravan in order to achieve true short takeoff and landing performance at maximum gross weight.

At weights noticeably below gross, however, the aircraft can land in impressively short fields, thanks to its large 2, 7m, three-bladed, full feathering Hartzell propeller.

Many thousands of hours of bush operations worldwide have demonstrated that, although not a STOL aircraft, the Caravan has withstood the kind of rough duty that is typical of bush operations. Its landing gear, for example, uses tubular spring-steel struts in the mains which are interconnected by a spring-steel tube that runs through the fuselage, thereby eliminating the need for air-oil struts and the possibility of one or both becoming flat.

The nose gear does employ an oil-filled strut, but it also uses a spring-steel drag link that accounts for much of the nose gears ability to handle rough-field landings; there is no air cylinder that requires recharging which could increase the maintenance load on deployed operations.

The caravan’s wings are equally designed for ruggedness. The wings are externally braced by struts that are redundant; double shafts and double fittings. Cessna engineers wanted the extra margin of ruggedness that redundant struts would provide.

Operating from unprepared strips in bush areas, poses its own safety challenges, particularly during rejected takeoffs and landings. To this effect, not only is the airframe rugged, so are the seats, which have been designed to be energy absorbent to provide the occupants protection in the event of a survivable accident. These seats offer a strength that exceeds the current FAA standards for Part 23 aircraft, and Cessna is to be commended for its voluntary efforts to improve the crash tolerance of its design.

Considering the strength of the aircraft\’s gear, basic structure and seats, the Caravan provides its occupants the type of mishap tolerance that bush operators will appreciate.

Built-In Safety, Reliability

The added emphasis on occupant safety is apparent in Cessna’s approach to meeting FAR Part 23.1309 pertaining to reliability; the company has gone well beyond the subjective standards of Part 23 and has attempted to satisfy the quantitative criteria of FAR Part 25: a probability of failure in a flight-critical item of no more often than once in a billion flight hours, and no more than one failure of any component in 100000 flight hours.

Aircraft designed for remote area operations must be kept as simple as possible to reduce the possibility of failures causing stoppages to operations, particularly during deployed operations and as such, the Cessna designers have employed large, electrically operated ,single-slotted flaps with new preset stops at the full-up,15 degrees takeoff/approach and 30 degrees landing positions. In the event that the primary flap-motor fails, an electrically operated standby system is available.

In addition, Caravan pilots are well aware of the relatively high lift/drag ratio generating approximately 2nm for each 1000 feet during a glide and the requirement to be able to manage the energy in the circuit. Modifications introduced included not only making changes to the flap scheduled with three flap settings, o degrees, 15 degrees, and 30 degrees, but also increasing the flap limiting speeds, to 150 KIAS/15 degrees and 125 KIAS/30 degrees, thereby enabling the flaps to be used by the pilot as an energy management utility.

Significantly, in another design effort to facilitate safe operations, the Caravan EX has changed philosophy of ice protection and does not rely on de-icing boots; the “black art” of ice protection has taken another step forward through innovative engineering introducing the certified TKS Ice Protection System.

Anthony A Juma is the Editor and Director Commercial and Flights Operations at Wings Over Africa Aviation Limited. This is an Air Charter Company that specializes on Business Aviation News On The Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX for cargo & Passenger Flights. The website has guided thousands of travelers to achieve their dream holiday. For more information and guidance, visit the site at http://www.wingsoverafrica-aviation.com/index.php/aircraft-and-helicopter-leasing.html

Anthony A Juma is the Editor and Director Commercial and Flights Operations at Wings Over Africa Aviation Limited. This is an Air Charter Company that specializes on Business Aviation News On The Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX for cargo & Passenger Flights. The website has guided thousands of travelers to achieve their dream holiday. For more information and guidance, visit the site at http://www.wingsoverafrica-aviation.com/index.php/aircraft-and-helicopter-leasing.html

Author Bio: Anthony A Juma is the Editor and Director Commercial and Flights Operations at Wings Over Africa Aviation Limited. This is an Air Charter Company that specializes on Business Aviation News On The Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX for cargo & Passenger Flights. The website has guided thousands of travelers to achieve their dream holiday. For more information and guidance, visit the site at http://www.wingsoverafrica-aviation.com/index.php/aircraft-and-helicopter-leasing.html

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