Our bush-strip workhorse
Grand Caravan
It lands where the lodge is.
- Seats
- 12
- Engine
- 1 × PT6A-114A
- Range
- 900+ nm
- Lands on
- Gravel, grass, murram
- In the fleet
- 4
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Grand Caravan
The Grand Caravan is a single-engine turboprop built for utility work: simple, tough and cheap to run. It carries 12 passengers or a load of cargo onto strips that bigger aircraft can't use, which in Kenya means most safari airstrips.
It's also where ALS pilots start. Cadets who finish our Cessna 208 type rating and pass our assessment fly their first airline sectors as First Officers on the Caravan.
Bush strips
Gravel, grass and murram. Rough-field tyres, a tough undercarriage, and at full weight it's over a 15 m obstacle 738 m after brakes off.
One engine, well proven
A Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turbine, from the same engine family as the 1900D's.
Any mission
Passengers, cargo, medevac or survey.
First job
Where our cadets begin their airline careers.
Grand Caravan
On board
The cabin
12 seats with big windows, at game-spotting height, in a cabin 1.63 m wide and 1.37 m high.
Cargo
Seats out, freight in: 9.6 m³ of cabin through a 1.24 × 1.27 m cargo door, plus an optional belly pod for another 494 kg.
Range
From Wilson: the Masai Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo, and a long way beyond.
The Mara strips are 95 to 109 nm away, Amboseli 84 and Tsavo West 121: short hops. On full fuel at maximum cruise the Caravan flies 907 nm with a 45-minute reserve, and up to 1,163 nm at long-range power.
Top view · Cessna 208B
Grand Caravan
- Wingspan
- 15.87 m
- Length
- 12.67 m
- Height
- 4.71 m
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Specifications
- Type
- Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
- Crew
- 1–2 pilots
- Seats
- 12
- Pressurised
- No
Figures are Cessna/Textron published data (pilot's operating handbook, specification and description) and the EASA type certificate, for the PT6A-114A Grand Caravan, passenger version, without cargo pod, unless noted. Seat numbers above nine need local approval. Real payload and range depend on temperature, airfield altitude and runway.
Grand Caravan
Our aircraft
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