Friday, December 12, 2008…This Holiday Season, you may not need to fly five hours into the jungle with three thousand pounds of cargo, or land near gross weight in a thousand foot clearing, or do circuits to the dropzone with 15 new jumpers every 20 minutes. You may not need to carry nine people to the away game, or land five of your friends plus five day’s gear at the best spot for backcountry skiing this side of the Cascades.
You may not need to…but in a KODIAK you could.
It's been a long year of growth at Quest and as we work to double our rate of production we would like to pause and express our gratitude to all who have pulled together and kept us moving forward. To those who buck rivets and balance ailerons, to those who crimp wires, lay hydraulic lines, or set lock nuts. To the engineers who calculate the load on every bolt, to managers in the back offices, and the voice at the front desk. Every day these folks walk into 84,000 square feet of floor space nestled in spot best described in cowboy songs and transform it into a purring production line. But what they’ve accomplished is much more important.
We've learned this year that the team that makes Quest tick is as diverse in duty as they are in character...and how fitting that is for the product we produce. With customer aircraft now on wheels, on floats, and in the air -- doing so many different jobs -- our mission becomes that much more clear. What we've done is still just a start. It's a broad beginning that shows but a few of the vast applications of our KODIAK. And so at year-end we find ourselves full of pride for what's accomplished and full of hope for the New Year.
Our journey has always been to make yours easier, because we believe the KODIAK is more than an airplane. Yes, this is a factory. And, yes, we build aircraft. But what we assemble is more than sum of its parts. KODIAK is the bridge between an idea and a destination. As our goal of sending aircraft to humanitarian missions finds its beginning we are excited to watch this aircraft bridge even broader chasms. This is a link between rich and poor, between sickness and health, and between excess and suffering. We may have built production lines, fixtures and jigs, and our days may be full of sheet metal and machined aluminum but as each aircraft moves off the line, we're starting to see that these are the same things hope is made of. And this gift will keep giving for generations to come. For each KODIAK rolling out these doors it’s not the end of the journey…it’s just the beginning.
And so to all you who have supported us once or stand with us today…your investment of time, or labor, or money has made possible what we offer in return. In the days to come KODIAK will carry 2000 pounds of parts over 1000 nautical miles to save a business, or take a family to a forgotten lake that will leave them with memories for a lifetime. It will carry a team of professional parachute jumpers to inspire a generation, or carry a small child on her first trip to see grandma.
One day soon KODIAK will rush a dying child safely over the mountains, through darkness and storm, to a hospital an entire culture away. KODIAK means that eight hundred feet of open ground can take you almost anywhere. That's something we couldn't have done without you.
Each one of you have been the answer to our prayers…and through the KODIAK, we hope to bring that answer to so many more.
With deepest gratitude,
The Team at Quest
(Quest Aircraft Company is completely owned by a Charitable Trust and all future commercial net-profits are mandated to be given to humanitarian organizations who bring joy, hope, and health to the most remote corners of the earth.)