A Quest Milestone

This moment happened just behind our home on Great Northern Road nine years ago. The folks from Quest Aircraft Co. invited Bill and me to come and watch their Kodiak prototype as it took its first flight from the Sandpoint Airport runway.  

The plane took off just fine, and, as is the aviation joke, it effortlessly achieved the most important part of any flight, the landing.  

This morning's paper announced another milestone for the manufacturing company which established itself in the field behind our farm and eventually purchased our farm, opening the door for us to move to Selle.

Quest has now sold its 100th plane since the prototype above made its first flight in 2004. The plane went to Sunstate Aviation in Phoenix, Ariz., according to a press release from Quest. More here:  http://questaircraft.com/newsroom/quest-aircraft-delivers-100th-kodiak/

Hats off to Quest for this achievement.  

As their neighbors until 2006, we enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the company, and we enjoyed our inclusion in many of their earlier steps toward constructing a plane that could land in remote jungle areas for missionary work or serve as an aerial SUV for recreationalists headed to the back country.

When we sold them our property, we added a contingency into the contract:  a family flight on the Kodiak.

We took advantage of that situation a few years ago when Annie was flying to Spokane from Seattle for a holiday weekend.  Quest flew us to Spokane to meet her and when she landed in Spokane, they drove her from the airport to the Kodiak in a limo. 

It was a wonderful treat and a nice alternative to our usual 3-4-hour round trips to Spokane for picking up people at the airport.  Much appreciated.

As was the dinner and get-together last evening with our friends, Skip and Helen.  Thanks for a great evening and a wonderful meal.  

Today is starting out as one of those crisp September mornings we've all awaited.  In fact, I kept three layers on for most of my walk.  The strong breeze felt mighty good, but I'm afraid we'll get back into a little warmth this afternoon before tomorrow's cool down.

The cooler weather has me trapsing around the place with my cart and cutting utensils to clean out this year's spent flowers.  And, I'm emptying Big Blue, the pool,  with a hose leading into the pasture.  

We're definitely into the storing and stocking-up season after a long, hot and productive summer. 

With the blink of an eye, we'll be complaining about snow.  Lots to do, though, before we blink.

Happy Friday.