Cubdriver

Anyone working for this company interested in sharing their thoughts? I am curious about the quality of life in Sandpoint Idaho, and anything else you care to share about Quest because they are currently advertising some job openings. Quest makes the Kodiak airplane, which is more or less a Cessna Caravan 208 modified for short airfields. The company is know for its program of giving every tenth Kodiak away at cost to promote humanitarian efforts. The airplane also seems to receive a good response from those who use it.

jcaplins

Just don't say that during an interview.



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clearedirect

haha, I was just going to say that. I learned that the hard way already..

Cubdriver

I'm sure they see their airplane as an improvement on an already great airplane, fellows. Now, can anyone speak to the question?

mudobber

The Kodiak is a fine piece of machinery, but the current leadership just does not seem to have it together.

Many of us fear the door's will be locked every morning when we show up for work. We are not getting the parts we need, We had a big layoff awhile back, confusion among the managers will drive you crazy and it just is not the neat environment it used to be.

As with many start up companies, poor decisions, tight cashflow, and a poor economy to boot, If I were looking for a job right now I would look elsewhere.

I'm getting ready to leave soon and move out of state. North Idaho is a wonderful place to live but job prospects are slim to none around here and wages are low. If you still want to work here you can have my job...

Cubdriver

Nah, I'll pass on it but thanks for the input and what you say lines up perfectly with what two other former employees had to say as well. I can do without the stress. They need to improve their program management quality first. They do seem to have a good airplane in the Kodiak, although I have never flown one. I was looking at their ads for an engineers at one point and HR asked me to apply, but the company is apparently going through a lot of growing pains these days. Maybe they can get it together because the Kodiak serves a niche market in unimproved short field applications.

mikewm

I am trying to find people that would be interested in contributing to a Quest Kodiak discussion forum. Basically somewhere to talk about management issues, aircraft problems or other things that the buyer would want to know but isnt being divulged by management. They haven't returned my calls or emails for the past month in regards to a promised delivery date of April 2010 yet I have the potential to buy up to 10 of these planes through an air taxi service I run in northern Canada. I've never dealt with a company like this except for Piper technical support but thats another story.

Anyways, for anyone interested in learning more and sharing some thoughts, please send me your email to [email protected] and I will send you an invite to the discussion board.

BushwickBill

2 big reasons I wouldn't work there as an outsider looking in:

1. They started up during an economic boom. Most companies that do this don't last long.

2. They are a pretty hardcore religious company. Not sure how that plays into your game. I've found companies that mix business and politics don't last long.

They have a unique product and worldwide demand. Plus a cult like pyramid scheme working for them. So despite the problems they likely won't be going away. It just wont be any fun for the "low end" employees.

Cubdriver

APC is a fine place for discussion of the Kodiak and Quest Aircraft Company. Just keep the Terms of Service (TOS) in mind. We discuss all kinds of aircraft here and the Kodiak fits right in. As far as the company Quest is concerned, they need to work on their image among the engineering and manufacturing communities a little bit in my opinion. I am sure they are a great company, but I live in Wichita an aircraft manufacturing town, and Quest does have a very good response here. This may or may not be deserved, but when I ask former employees about it I do not hear many glowing comments. I hear about growing pains and other things that make the company sound like less than it probably is.

mudobber

No this is not a cruel April Fools Joke, but Quest Aircraft layed off 55 Employee's yesterday (4/1/10). This brings the total employee's shown the door up around 100 folks. Unfortunately, their problems have gone beyond growing pains and into the many pitfalls that have taken many a fine aircraft company down with it.

BushwickBill hit much of the issues right on. Part of their problems stem from the economy, but most of their problems come from their decision to hire former execs from other failed aircraft companies. The top of Quest is heavily laden with guys who had a large hand in Columbia Aircraft, Honda Jet, Glasair, just to name a few. They came to Quest and obviously didnt learn from their mistakes.

Another major problem is that they sold airplanes with options not even designed yet. With customers banging on the door for an airplane 3 years past their given delivery date, Quest finally got to work on the deiceing system and the belly pod, only to run into unforseen problems and thus unable to satisfy customers.

Orders have cancelled so fast, Quest first slowed down production and layed off employee's, but with no new orders coming in, the company has run into a huge cashflow problem. The production floor was cut back to 30 then 20 hours per week.

I'm really sorry to paint such an sad picture for everyone here, but these are the facts as I've lived them as a employee of Quest. I have since left for a new job, but still have many friends there.

The Kodiak is a wonderful aircraft and I hope the type certificate and hard work put into it does not die along with the company. I really hope someone buys the ability to manufacture the kodiak after the dust settles.

or here's an Idea. Someone could build kodiak type wings for the Caravan, and actually have a better airplane and I bet you could do it cheaper. Refurbish old caravans with new wings and avionics and be ahead of the game.