TRANS-Guyana Airways recently replaced the engine of one of its turbo-powered Cessna Grand Caravans with the famed Black Hawk engine. The new engine now gives the Caravan a short take-off and landing (STOL) capability, and makes this feat a first locally for such an aircraft.

With this upgrade, this particular Grand Caravan can now access short runways upon which it could not land before, thus taking its benefits of speed, comfort, and greater load bearing capacity to hinterland communities which could only have been accessed by the slower piston-powered aircraft, such as the Islander.

Making the announcement, TGA Chief Pilot, Captain Andre Farinha, explained that with its original engine, a Grand Caravan needed a strip of at least 1800 feet in length to land and/or take off when fully loaded.
This shortcoming, Farinha said, had seriously limited the use of the aircraft in some areas in the hinterland.

Now that the Black Hawk engine has been installed, the aircraft can operate safely on a strip with a length of 1300 feet, or five hundred feet less than what had previously obtained.

The Grand Caravan has since been able to service miners and commuters at shorter airstrips in the hinterland, such as the one at Kurupung bottom in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni).

Farinha said TGA is pleased with its new ability to better serve hinterland residents and operators in the mining and forestry sectors as a result of the Black Hawk engine upgrade. He said too that TGA has a fleet of six other Caravans, and other aircraft of this fleet will soon be equipped with STOL capability through upgrades with Black Hawk engines.

Announcing a related achievement, he said TGA has also acquired from the Black Hawk Company (based in the U.S.A.) the right to distribute Black Hawk aircraft engines in the Caribbean and Northern Brazil.