Featured Caravan Pilot - Lewis from Army Parachute Association

Meet Lewis, a pilot that I met in our Caravan Pilot group on Facebook. He is a British Caravan pilot flying skydivers in Germany for Army Parachute Association. A company that has a contract in Germany to fly British servicemen for Sport Parachuting at Rhine Army Parachute Association.

Age: 23

Total Time: 1100

Company: Army Parachute Association, United Kingdom

Location: Bad Lippspringe, Germany

Years flying the Caravan: 2 years

What do you like most about flying the Caravan?

From flying a DA42 in your Instrument Rating onto a commercial operating aircraft with people trusting their lives in you, the Caravan beats all other aircraft in helping you take that step. The caravan is an amazing aircraft to fly, with forgive ability to a low hour pilot. The caravan allows me to take all my theory and student studies into actual practical experience for example IFR approaches and airway work. Understanding how the CoG affects each aspect of flight, especially when your passengers are on the camera step! Knowing that once you start flying a turbine aircraft, its awareness for temperature, temperature, temperature! The caravan has very comfortable seats, with arm rests to allow long days as a jump pilot. There is no better single engine turbine aircraft available and no aircraft which is more enjoyable.

What are your career goals?

My career goals are that whenever I am flying an aircraft, it should be hand flown. In the future, I wish to go onto multi turbine aircraft where I can hand fly; whether this be parachuting, ferrying or bush flying. I would also like to advance onto business jets or the airline route.

What is your advice for younger pilots?

Never give up sending CVs, never give up networking, never give up visiting airfields and never give up trying! Always try and revise some form of aviation, whether it’s POF or OPS at least once a week. If you ever get a chance to fly, even if its safety pilot on a ferry flight, grab it! Employer’s always like to see that young pilots are involved in this hard industry. If you are a young student, give a company an email to say where you are. After a few emails they will remember your name and how you are progressing in your pilot career. If you have just got your commercial licence then look at building your hours at companies like parachuting, ferrying, instructing and gliding towing. I was very lucky, where I emailed the Chief Pilot of the company the day he needed a pilot.

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Caravan Pilots - Featured Pilot of the Month - Kathleen from SkyLink Express

This is the first in a series titled "Featured Caravan Pilot". It will start out here on the Caravan Pilots blog and will eventually move over to my site CaravanPilot.com after it has been relaunched. 

Meet Kathleen, our very first Featured Caravan Pilot! She is the only female and the youngest out of 40 pilots that her company employs.

Name: Kathleen

Age: 22

Total Time: 1500 hrs
Company: SkyLink Express (Canada's largest cargo feeder airline!)

Location: Halifax, NS Canada

Years flying the Caravan: 2 years this fall

What do you like most about flying the Caravan? 

The list of what I like most about the Caravan is lengthy as I've spent the majority of my professional life flying it. As a young pilot who began flying the 208 with relatively low time, I couldn't have chose a more forgiving aircraft to learn on. The Cessna Caravan is incredibly capable and unbelievably versatile. For me, learning IFR, SOPs & turbine theory was a steep learning curve. 

The C208 has been an excellent starter aircraft for many reasons! In learning all of these areas, the 208 was fast enough to challenge my abilities yet slow enough to teach me the basic skillset that I'll carry with me throughout my career. I learned everything from hand-flying an NDB approach to power and system management in challenging (and sometimes slightly scary) icing conditions. 

Along with the learning curve, I can honestly say that I doubt I'll ever have as much fun flying another airplane as I have with the Van. It handles well, it responds to pilot inputs very well, and has wildly impressive performance numbers (when it comes to takeoff and landing distances). I'm proud to call the Scare-a-Van "My First Turbine".

What are your goals? 

Throughout my career, I hope to spend some time in various capacities of the industry, including MEDIVAC operations, Corporate (Jet) flying, and eventually either large passenger airlines or large cargo operations.

What is your advice for younger pilots? 

Advice I could give to younger pilots is limited, in that I'm fairly young myself (or so I've been told). What I'd pass along to future hopefuls, is to seize (and make) every opportunity possible. Talk to pilots you meet, explore different aircraft, network as best you can, and NEVER burn bridges; the industry is FAR too small to make enemies. Keep your nose to the grind, and see every flight as a learning experience. Pilots log hours, aviators log lessons.

Thank you Kathleen for your great answers and advice! If anyone knows of a Caravan Pilot that you feel should be spotlighted send me an email chris@caravanpilot.com