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I want to see if anyone knows what the heck is going on here. I was doing a flight out in Palo Alto California recently, and during the run up this Cessna 182 pulled in next to us. It appears to have a canard foreplanes attached near the firewall of the airplane, and it appears to have a movable control surface on it as well. No this is not a Photoshopped image, this is an actual airplane that was sitting right next to us. I’m just curious if anyone here knows of any program using this aircraft and the purpose of the canard foreplanes. Thanks.

enter image description here

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It's a King Katmai STOL mod for a Cessna 182. From https://www.avweb.com/ownership/king-katmai-mod-safe-stol/

The full King Katmai modification consists of the canard, 300-HP IO-550, choice of 82- or 86-inch, three-blade prop, speed mods/drag reduction fairings, wing extension, increased gross weight, heavy-duty landing gear, which includes Cleveland brakes, stainless steel leading edges on the gear legs, brake lines faired in behind the main gear legs and routed so they are unlikely to be snagged during rough field operations, heavy-duty Airglas nose strut and oversize tires.

It brings the stall speed down to 31 knots. 3100 lb gross weight takeoff distance of 290 feet from a hard surface runway.

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    $\begingroup$ Yeah come to think of it that’s what was written on the nose of the aircraft. I never realized there had STOL kits featuring canards. Thanks, Terry! $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Felicione
    Oct 12, 2018 at 21:44
  • $\begingroup$ Could it be the Kenai, since it doesn't seem to have the large main gear tires? $\endgroup$
    – fooot
    Oct 12, 2018 at 21:52
  • $\begingroup$ Whoa, I thought the Grob 115C had a low stall speed at 45 knots with flaps at 60°. $\endgroup$
    – Simon Richter
    Oct 13, 2018 at 11:56
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Terry got it right! It’s a King Katmai STOL Kit. You can practically squeeze that thing into a parking lot!

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    $\begingroup$ He had me right up to the part where he said it cost $350K(!). $\endgroup$
    – Richard
    Oct 13, 2018 at 21:04
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah they basically do a spinner to tail rebuild. Not exactly a run of the mill STC kit! $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Felicione
    Oct 13, 2018 at 21:27
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For those who do not know -- the difference between a King Katmai and a Kenai is whether or not the plane includes the Wing-X STOL wing extensions, which add about 3' to the wingspan. AFAIK, everything else is configurable. I cannot tell from the picture whether or not the plane has the wing extensions, so the picture shows either a King Katmai with small wheels (a bit unusual) or else a Kenai. Note that the video's performance figures are for a King Katmai with its usual tires (29" Bushwheels), not the smaller tires with wheel pants shown in the picture.

(The above assumes it had the 300HP IO550. If not, there is one more choice -- a 260SE. Think of that as a Kenai with a 260HP engine.)

As to price -- it can go up to the mid-$400K's -- depends on things like the avionics requested, how fancy a custom interior you have installed, and how fancy a paint job you have done.

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    $\begingroup$ This would be a better fit as a comment than an answer. $\endgroup$
    – 0xdd
    Dec 19, 2018 at 15:25

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