Used Business Jet Review

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan

A rugged “utility infielder” since 1990

By Mark Huber - June 1, 2009

With its unpressurized cabin and relatively slow cruise speeds, this single-engine turboprop isn’t for everyone. Still, its long-time popularity is no puzzle. Featuring simple systems, a large cabin, a sturdy design and the ability to handle primitive landing strips, it combines dependability, utility and economy in what one operator called “a rock-solid airplane.”

The Cessna Grand Caravan is what happens when you cross a Winnebago and a single-engine turboprop.

The Model 208B Grand Caravan and its four-foot-shorter sibling, the Model 675 Caravan, have been around for decades. This rugged $2 million “utility infielder” combines simple systems, a cavernous but unpressurized cabin and a robust design that has stood the test of time. Cessna delivered the first Caravan in 1985 and the first Grand Caravan in 1990. Save for a few incremental improvements added over the years, the model remains largely unchanged. Bill Herp, whose Massachusetts-based Linear Air at one time operated six executive Caravans, called it “a rock-solid airplane.”

The Caravan is a true go-anywhere Cessna. While it does travel a little faster at lower altitudes, it can be flown at up to 23,700 feet, provided passengers and pilot are breathing supplemental oxygen. A built-in oxygen system is an $11,000 option.

Going into a short gravel strip in the middle of Alaska? No problem. The airplane sits high on fixed, spring metal main landing gear and a strutted nose wheel, giving its propeller ample ground clearance and allowing it to handle primitive, uneven and unpaved landing strips. Even if you roll into a big rut a tad fast and collapse the nose wheel strut and blow out the front tire, the propeller sits up high enough that it will not convert into a garden tiller. With full fuel, a Caravan can still hold more than most medium business jets. With lighter loads, the airplane can take off in less than 1,500 feet and land in less than 1,000– with spirited use of brakes and propeller reverse, you can stop much shorter than that.

Of course, rare are the missions when you need to pack in full fuel, 332 gallons (usable). The airplane burns 50 to 55 gallons an hour at cruise power setting, which means you’d miss both games of the Sunday NFL double-header before you’d run out of gas. (Fortunately, a chemical toilet is an available option.)

Aside from the procedure used for starting the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-114A, 675-horsepower turbine engine, a Caravan isn’t much different to fly than your basic, 160-horsepower, piston engine, four-seat Cessna 172 trainer. A low-time pilot would feel comfortable in this airplane. The handling is docile and the speed in all flight regimes is, well, slow. Stall speed with full flaps is just 60 knots. Conversely, cruise speed tops out at 186 knots. That means a typical 600-nautical-mile trip–including  taxi, climb-out and landing–will take a leisurely 3.6 hours. But then, you buy this airplane for utility, not speed.

Federal Express Feeder airlines operate 260 stripped-down Grand Caravans (no passenger windows or finished interiors) that have cargo pods slung under their bellies and are badged Super Cargomasters. Numerous other small-package freight expediters fly them as well, as do rural regional and tourist airlines from Canada to Cameroon.

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