ICON A5: A Great Airplane With a Deadly Appeal

[GeorgePerry]

High profile ICON pilots fatal accidents

 

 

[mike_elliott]

Just on the other side of that power plant smokestack about 1 mile is my house.

[Danb]

1 hour ago, GeorgePerry said:

High profile ICON pilots fatal accidents

 

 

Very sad. I learned early in my flying career flying low under 800' is for landing only.

[Jim Peace]

15 minutes ago, Danb said:

Very sad. I learned early in my flying career flying low under 800' is for landing only.

You never towed banners for a living.......

[PTK]

The marketing message ICON is pushing has proven to be dangerous and irresponsible. They are doing a huge disservice to their customers and to GA. Their target demographic are young and inexperienced weekend adventurers who think flying a plane is sexy and hip. It’s the same crowd who when they were younger took daddy’s car for a joy ride and wrapped it around a tree. Similar mentality. Unfortunately they don’t know what they don’t know but take the bait and proceed to kill themselves...with mathematic predictability. And of course we all pay higher insurance premiums each time one of these goof balls crashes. It’s getting old.

[jkhirsch]

35 minutes ago, PTK said:

young and inexperienced weekend adventurers who think flying a plane is sexy and hip

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/roy-halladay-plane-crash-gulf-of-mexico-philadelphia-phillies-toronto-blue-jays-20171107.html

His father:

Edited November 8, 2017 by jkhirsch

[Danb]

1 hour ago, Jim Peace said:

You never towed banners for a living.......

Nope. No fun stuff

[TonyK]

That was hard to watch but I think there is some value to reenforce that these machines we fly are not toys and should be treated with respect.  When you stop believing that they will bite back with dire consequences.

[rbridges]

can anyone tell what happened?  It looks like he's turning but just keeps descending into the water.  Was it some type of spin/stall?

[Raptor05121]

Too fast for a spin/stall. Hard to tell, but I really think he was just hotdogging around and got too low.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jim Peace said:

You never towed banners for a living.......

Or sprayed/ dusted crops?

Clarence

[kpaul]

1 minute ago, M20Doc said:

Or sprayed/ dusted crops?

Clarence

Spent a few years flying C-130s @ 300AGL, still not something to mess around with.

[Guest]

Just now, kpaul said:

Spent a few years flying C-130s @ 300AGL, still not something to mess around with.

What type of mission had you that low?

Clarence

[kpaul]

Just now, M20Doc said:

What type of mission had you that low?

Clarence

That was out standard VFR low level.  300AGL modified contour.  We would then pop up to 800AGL over the drop zone.  It was a lot of fun, but I had three others in the cockpit with me sharing the navigation.

[mike_elliott]

2 hours ago, kpaul said:

That was out standard VFR low level.  300AGL modified contour.  We would then pop up to 800AGL over the drop zone.  It was a lot of fun, but I had three others in the cockpit with me sharing the navigation.

and a heck of a terrain radar system in the 130..Hurlburt?

[flight2000]

38 minutes ago, kpaul said:

That was out standard VFR low level.  300AGL modified contour.  We would then pop up to 800AGL over the drop zone.  It was a lot of fun, but I had three others in the cockpit with me sharing the navigation.

Yea, I hated those missions.  I was one of the meat bombs in the back with the 82nd Airborne from 93-95....  

Brian

[aviatoreb]

The way they advertised this airplane spooked me from the start that someone may take them too seriously and get hurt.  Catch a wing in the water and flip.

 

[Marauder]

That was out standard VFR low level.  300AGL modified contour.  We would then pop up to 800AGL over the drop zone.  It was a lot of fun, but I had three others in the cockpit with me sharing the navigation.

You guys used to drive me nuts coming out of Niagara Falls flying that low. The scariest bird encounter I ever had was being sandwiched in between a flock of geese 500 feet above me a couple of C-130s flying 500 feet below me on an oil burner route.


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[Hank]

1 hour ago, flight2000 said:

Yea, I hated those missions.  I was one of the meat bombs in the back with the 82nd Airborne from 93-95....  

Brian

Hey!! You were flying low over my house then! I don't live near there any more, but my inlaws are still in town.

Can't think of a good reason to be flying as low as the video made him look. My first thought after seeing the pictures is that the wing looks partially detached, like he caught a wingtip in the water. Low level = high risk!

Edited November 9, 2017 by Hank

[aaronk25]

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/roy-halladay-plane-crash-gulf-of-mexico-philadelphia-phillies-toronto-blue-jays-20171107.html

His father:

Insert foot in mouth....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Niko182]

I think Icon representing this aircraft as half boat and half plane isn't really a safe Idea. when the came
out with the original concept i thought it was pretty cool, but as I got my PPL, i noticed advertising a plane
as a jetski probably isn't a great idea.

[Aviationinfo]

Whoever made that video wasn't of much use, was he?  Wow.  He made his youtube video to show all his friends but it appears he forgot about trying to see if the poor guy flying it might have survived somehow.  Not impressive.

[Danb]

5 hours ago, Aviationinfo said:

Whoever made that video wasn't of much use, was he?  Wow.  He made his youtube video to show all his friends but it appears he forgot about trying to see if the poor guy flying it might have survived somehow.  Not impressive.

It's the me generation everyone gets a trophy for competing, why strive to be great whe youve already won. In out vocation there is no second best, we must strive for perfection at all times hoping perfection is good enough. Errors flying similar to Icons websites leave no room for error. Plus they expect newly minted sport pilots to have the knowledge experience and skill to perform those dangerous maneuvers all without aerobics training. Icon is on a very slippery slope IMO

 

[PTK]

1 hour ago, Danb said:

It's the me generation everyone gets a trophy for competing, why strive to be great whe youve already won. In out vocation there is no second best, we must strive for perfection at all times hoping perfection is good enough. Errors flying similar to Icons websites leave no room for error. Plus they expect newly minted sport pilots to have the knowledge experience and skill to perform those dangerous maneuvers all without aerobics training. Icon is on a very slippery slope IMO

 

And their own christened "test pilot" did the same thing in the May accident. The poor fool put on a flight suit and a helmet and thought he was a test pilot! But why not? Above all it's about the marketing message. All image, no substance.

"The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from terrain while maneuvering at a low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's mistaken entry into a canyon surrounded by steep rising terrain while at a low altitude for reasons that could not be determined." /NTSB

[aviatoreb]

1 hour ago, Danb said:

It's the me generation everyone gets a trophy for competing, why strive to be great whe youve already won. In out vocation there is no second best, we must strive for perfection at all times hoping perfection is good enough. Errors flying similar to Icons websites leave no room for error. Plus they expect newly minted sport pilots to have the knowledge experience and skill to perform those dangerous maneuvers all without aerobics training. Icon is on a very slippery slope IMO

 

I too was pretty shocked they arrived at a fresh crash scene and just gawked at it without even a thought that there could still be a survivor in there needing to be saved as quickly as possible.  It never occurred to them.