Many flying enthusiasts recall the days of the barnstormers of the 1920s with something akin to ecstatic reverie. Flying then was simply a matter of either cobbling together your own plane, or-more likely-buying one of the vintage World War I models then flooding the marketplace and then simply teaching yourself to fly. There were no regulations, no registered airspace restrictions, no physical exams to take every year, no insurance, and the cost of taking to the skies was so low that it was available to virtually anyone with the nerve to do it.
For reasons both good and bad (but mostly good), those days of simple airplane design and true democratic flying are over. A private pilot's license typically takes six months or so to get hold of, and will run you something in the neighborhood of $10,000. The Federal Aviation Administration requires strict physical exams for private pilots (re-administered every year) and maintains a slew of restrictions regarding that class of flying. Of course, even with license in hand, there is the messy consideration of what exactly you're going to fly. The venerable Cessna 172, one of the most inexpensive and widely used airplanes in the skies today-and which private pilots typically train on-will still cause you to part with about $240,000.
Yet there is both a legal and a mechanical loophole in the center of all of these economic and bureaucratic tangles, one that allows a flying enthusiast to take to the skies in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. The solution: a Sport Pilot license. Under this type of flying authorization, training can be completed in as little as ten days and for $3000, health certification is achieved by simply displaying a drivers license, and pilots are permitted to carry one passenger on board his or her aircraft. Sport Pilots are restricted from flying at night, in poor weather or in controlled airspace (flight pathways and in and around airports and congested urban areas), and from flying planes that weigh more than 1350 pounds fully loaded; still, it represents an extraordinary degree of legal liberty.
Small plane manufacturers like Cessna been slow to respond to the Sport Pilot market, and so the task of building airplanes that fit the classification has fallen largely to small, startup companies. One such is Icon Aircraft, out of Los Angeles California, manufacturer of the Icon A5 folding wing model seen at left. Designed for two passengers and with a maximum takeoff weight of 1430 pounds (you'd have to shed 80 pounds of that in order to be legal, however), the A5's has a maximum speed of 120 mph and a range of 300 nautical miles. It requires no more than 750 feet of runway for both take-off and landing, and is powered by a 100hp Rotax 912 engine, thoughtfully placed behind the cabin in order to afford the pilot an unobstructed (and extraordinary) view. Water enthusiasts will be pleased to note that it is also customizable as a seaplane.
A plane as small as the A5 would seemed susceptible to the brand of thrifty minimalism so epidemic in ultra-small aircraft, but this particular model feels very much like flying an automobile, with suitably analogous interior design and instrumentation. For an aircraft that weighs about 800 pounds without baggage, passengers or gas, this is a remarkably solid affair, with none of the wild bending, swaying, thrill-a-minute sensibilities of its smaller, ultralight aircraft cousins. The A5 is a serious plane for serious pilots, and even includes an optional ballistic parachute, designed to be deployed in the case of a structural emergency or engine failure. Such chutes have been credited with saving over 200 aircraft and the lives of the people in them.
Significantly less important than the safety and structural integrity of the A5-but nevertheless appealing to aspiring pilots-is the fact that this is simply a beautiful plane. To our eyes an amalgamation of Battlestar Galactica and the Wright brothers, its swooping lines and gentle angles make for a beautiful sight on the ground or in the air.
The estimated price for the Icon A5 standard model is $139,000 and includes a standard feature package (amphibious, retractable landing gear, and manual folding wings). A variety of other options are available.
Icon Aircraft can be contacted directly at 424.201.3505 or by writing to sales@iconaircraft.com.
