The New Orwellian Norm has come to GA...

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One ugly human trait that is nearly always consistent and is highly associated with air disasters is assigning blame.

I'm the kind of CFI that has worked for months to fix students that were "unsalvageable" but I'll tell you straight up "nope you just are not capable of that."

I didn't want the be the bag man. The guy left holding when you get rolled on. I've seen enough wealthy idiots with a new toy to know when a good time to bail is.

A vivid memory is helping a newly minted pilot push his turbine converted P210 into his hangar. I was a brand new CFI and of course wanted turbine time. This pilot was sold that his aircraft had so much power it "couldn't stall." He was killed in his aircraft with two others a month or so later.

I've seen stuff like that happen enough times to see when a product and a personality combine to create a pilot that feels he is invincible. Macho hazardous - isn't that what the impotent FAA calls it? We have all seen it we joke about the 'chute on the Cirrus and the plastic dot com killer.

The v tail Doctor killer was no different and provides us with an interesting look at social demographics as well. The 1%er Jetski is the same thing.

I saw this coming for ICON.The mix of: client that believes the claim the "aircraft can't stall, who can not be bothered to at least obtain a private license, an impotent and utterly worthless regulatory body and a versatile lightweight short range seaplane all add up to one thing.

Disaster

Now the company is tightening screws to make sure they don't get a bad name.




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Let's be perfectly clear...doctors are Bonanza killers.

Richman
 
One of my friends - who decries (not unjustifiably) the booth-babe/Silicon Valley brah culture - points out (correctly) that brahs are, in fact, the target market.

Let's go to the gym and get swole.

Tech Bros destroy a Donzi at Ocean Beach SF:



I love the commentary from the real watermen behind the camera. From decades of earning respect for the Ocean in the paddle out. Unlike the tech bros driving the Donzi.

"Ocean Beach is self regulating"

And it's the only place a bunch of undeserving rich wankers with no talent can't get any purchase.

I'd argue that the Icon is even more prone to such incidents.

A short range limited performance sea plane should not fall under LSA categories.


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I saw this coming for ICON.The mix of: client that believes the claim the "aircraft can't stall, who can not be bothered to at least obtain a private license, an impotent and utterly worthless regulatory body and a versatile lightweight short range seaplane all add up to one thing.

Disaster

Now the company is tightening screws to make sure they don't get a bad name.




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Have they claimed it won't stall? I hadn't seen that. I know they put AoA in it, which is probably the only redeeming feature of the whole thing. Every airplane should have AoA available to the pilot. It should be more required than the airspeed indicator.
 
Have they claimed it won't stall? I hadn't seen that. I know they put AoA in it, which is probably the only redeeming feature of the whole thing. Every airplane should have AoA available to the pilot. It should be more required than the airspeed indicator.

I don't know what Icon says about stalls. I've only seen the aircraft at OSH. I hung about a bit and drank beer.

I did speak with some people who had a deposit that were under the impression that the aircraft didn't stall. Now they may have meant something else like the aircraft has very gentile stall characteristics. There is a good chance they had made a deposit and had sat on it for years without getting a pilots license. This I find very odd.

The thing is this is what happens when you sell aircraft to be LSAs piloted by people who are trained from zero.
 
I recall a video somewhere claiming that it couldn't be stalled.


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I used my Google powers and searched: ICON AIRCRAFT CANT STALL

Got this result:
3857cca52fcd742e0211b095f51ca289.jpg


Jun 18, 2015 - After flying the first fully conforming Icon A5 on June 17 in California's ... and visibility, is a joy to fly—and would not stall and spin no matter how much I provoked it. .... I can't wait to fly it.

Here:

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2015/June/18/Icon-A5-is-for-real

TXT is specifically from this part of the story:

With two aboard and 10 gallons of fuel (half tanks), the airplane climbed 800 fpm to 1,000 feet where Hawkins demonstrated a seemingly suicidal series of maneuvers in which he provoked the airplane to stall and spin—but it simply refused. Steep turns with full back stick caused the wing to buffet and shake, yet the outboard wing panels with a lower angle of incidence kept flying, and the ailerons remained effective.


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Now to be fair to ICON I haven't seen anything that says their aircraft can't stall. They say it is completely controllable during a stall and it is spin resistant.



When someone without formal aviation training hears this who knows what they think. Hence the restrictive "lease" from ICON.


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I can see it now. "you can't spin this airplane, its spin resistant"....."Hold my beer".
 
Why is everyone so scared of stalls and spinning? It is not like it is the Tower of Terror at Disney.
 
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