As common a hobby as waterskiing

[silver-eagle]

Here comes the ICON A5. Also seen here. Maybe the ercoupe of the 21st century.. Should fit the light sport catagory. Trailerable and an amphibian.
There is also the Transition. This one being a car that converts to a plane. No need for the trailer or the FBO courtesy car.
It may be a very interesting year in aviation.

 

[jason]

I saw the Icon a few weeks ago. Aside from the fact that they're trying to make the panel look like a sports car, it sure looks like a neat aircraft. I just wish we had more bodies of water around here!

 

[gkainz]

very cute - I would go for one of those! Colorado has plenty of bodies of water - unfortunately, it's illegal to land an aircraft on any of them (or so I've heard - I've not researched that 3rd hand bit of info).

 

[Dean]

Its just another popular mechanics dream machine. Like those flying cars that was going to be in everyone's garage.

 

[Pi1otguy]

Insurance (auto & air) will be a beast.

 

[silver-eagle]

ICON A5's first flight video which just happened last week is available.
Terrafugia's prototype should fly by years end (Carl Dietrich, CEO, Terrafugia).
Both ICON and Terrafugia will be at OSHKOSH.
And is it me or does the Rotax engine show up in more homebuilts and LSA than other manufacturers?

 

[Ken Ibold]

And is it me or does the Rotax engine show up in more homebuilts and LSA than other manufacturers?

It's not you. Just like Briggs & Stratton show up in lawn mowers and generators. Every successful manufacturer has a niche, and Rotax has leveraged its original snowmobile-to-aircraft conversion into a nice little niche. I've only flown Rotax-powered airplanes twice -- once in an experimental and in the original Diamond DA-20 -- and the 4-stroke seems like a nice little engine. The 2-stroke has a spotty safety history, but that could be due to things other than the design of the engine.

 

[jmaynard]

And is it me or does the Rotax engine show up in more homebuilts and LSA than other manufacturers?

It does in the SLSA market. When I was picking an airplane, I didn't want a Rotax (I wanted an engine my local mechanic could work on without having to go to a school just for it), but found that it got picked over the O-200 for two reasons: it's $8K cheaper (in the uncertificated version) and, officially, 60 pounds lighter (though that advantage gets significantly cut when you add the cooling system, something the official Rotax specs don't include in the weight).

Interestingly enough, I seem to see more folks who build Zodiacs using either the Jabiru 3300 or the Corvair engine than the Rotax. Dunno why that is, though.