{"id":1355,"date":"2010-12-12T04:00:28","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2018-06-27T22:59:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T02:59:38","slug":"the-icon-a5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=1355","title":{"rendered":"The ICON A5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I had an exchange of comments with one of the readers which prompted me to send her a link to the ICON A5 aircraft.&nbsp; If you have never seen this new airplane, and you are a pilot who likes the water, before you read any further strap on your seat belt so you don\u2019t fall out of your chair in front of your computer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Icon A5 - The Cutting Edge of Light Sport Aircraft.mp4\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FGg7G9ck44A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n(Fou nd at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FGg7G9ck44A\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FGg7G9ck44A<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Let me start by saying I am in no way affiliated with the company; I\u2019ve not flown the airplane, although I would love to; and I don\u2019t receive any royalties or kickbacks for what I write about the airplane. What I will say is from reading the literature and watching the company videos, this is one very impressive light sport aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>By the numbers \u2013 this is a two-seat aircraft capable of going just about anywhere.&nbsp; With a maximum takeoff weight of 1430 pounds with an empty weight of 900 to 1000 pounds depending on options, this gives the airplane a useful load of 430 to 530 pounds.&nbsp; Fuel takes up 120 pounds of this weight consisting of 20 gallons of either avgas or auto gas.<\/p>\n<p>The maximum speed of the aircraft is 105 knots and the company reports the range of the airplane as 300 nautical miles.&nbsp; Takeoff and landing distance is 750 feet.<\/p>\n<p>Power to weight ratio is fairly good.&nbsp; The power to weight ratio for the ICON is 14.3 pounds per horsepower; in comparison, a new Cessna 172 with a gross weight of 2550 pounds equipped with a 180 horsepower Lycoming has a power to weight ratio of 14.1 pounds per horsepower, only slightly better.&nbsp; The powerplant for the ICON is the Rotax 912 ULS producing 100 horsepower.<\/p>\n<p>The one great feature about the new ICON A5 is the folding wing.&nbsp; Owner-pilots can trailer their airplane allowing them to take it back and forth between home and the airport, or nearest boat ramp.&nbsp; This eliminates a hefty hangar fee, which will allow the owner to fly more hours each month.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk Hawkins, the CEO of ICON Aircraft, and his design team invested a lot of thought in creating the airframe.&nbsp; First, they instituted quite a few advanced safety features.&nbsp; For one, they used a good sized wing combined with an airfoil allowing for a safe, low-speed handling capability.&nbsp; This also allows for a fairly low stall speed.<\/p>\n<p>One option available to new owners is the ICON Complete Airplane Parachute recovery system.&nbsp; They also designed their own propeller guard system which they are in the process of applying for a patent.<\/p>\n<p>In the cockpit, the airplane is roomy and designed like a sports car.&nbsp; It has the feel of a late model car which was no accident.&nbsp; The design team wanted to make new pilots feel as though flying the ICON would be similar to driving, thus making the transition to flying easier.<\/p>\n<p>If you have the opportunity to study the airplane either over the Internet or in person, check it out.&nbsp; The web address for the company is <a href=\"http:\/\/iconaircraft.com\">http:\/\/iconaircraft.com<\/a>. Keep an open mind, and also remember the airplane is new.&nbsp; I am sure as with all new airplanes, the team will have a few bugs to work out.<\/p>\n<p>However, from the literature and early test flights, it appears as though they have done their homework well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">-30-<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I had an exchange of comments with one of the readers which prompted me to send her a link to the ICON A5 aircraft.&nbsp; If you have never seen this new airplane, and you are a pilot who likes &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=1355\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[329,376,839,1468,1769,1799,2155,2276,2797,3086,3119,3164,3682,3718,4023,4152],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-flying-2","tag-airplanes","tag-amphibious-airplanes","tag-cessnas","tag-flying","tag-hangar-fees","tag-he-icon-complete-airplane-parachute-recovery-system","tag-learning-to-fly","tag-lycoming","tag-pilots-who-like-the-water","tag-rotax-912-uls","tag-safe-low-speed-handling-capability","tag-seaplanes","tag-the-folding-wing","tag-the-icon-a5","tag-training-aircraft","tag-very-impressive-light-sport-aircraft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}