Flight Training - June 2019 - 44

stick, and add full power. The airplane moves onto the step by
itself, and slight back-pressure on the stick has us flying again. We
climb at white line to 500 feet above the lake, then turn downwind and repeat the process.
Focusing on AOA produces consistent approaches and landings
as well as a fuller understanding of the wing in flight. Every wing
has optimum angles for climb, cruise, maximum range, turns, and
descents-but it's practically impossible to identify them without an
AOA indicator, so general aviation pilots make do with airspeed indicators that only tell part of the story. Icon's AOA gauge gives pilots
the whole picture graphically in a way that's easy to understand.

operating in that traditional environment. Zackney said students
learn those procedures quickly since they're already comfortable
in the airplane. "They're not learning to fly and learning a new
language at the same time," he said. "They've already got the
basics of flying down pat."
Icon students solo at the airport, then return to the water for the
rest of their training. And that training emphasizes safely operating
in the hazardous low-altitude environment where amphibious airplanes are meant to fly. They concentrate on flying by feel; looking
outside; avoiding obstructions; reading the water for wind, currents,
and waves; and making sound nautical and aeronautical decisions.

"The beauty of the AOA gauge is that it removes all of this
complexity since stall AOA remains the same regardless of angle
of bank, load factor, or aircraft weight," Icon says in its training
supplement. "It's difficult for a pilot to know in real time how
stall airspeed is varying with load factor because [stall speed]
changes with the square root of the load factor. Multiplying
square roots to figure out stall speed is not where we want to go."
The AOA indicator is relevant in every phase of flight. In cruise,
the pilot can continue to fly the white line for maximum endurance,
or accelerate to the green line for a faster cruise that delivers the
most speed in terms of fuel consumed. On approach, or for the most
efficient glide, the pilot flies the white line regardless of flap or landing gear position all the way to the flare. For minimum-radius turns,
the pilot banks 60 degrees and pulls to the yellow line. Pilots also
target the yellow line for rough-water and short-field approaches.
By the end of our third flight, we've covered all aspects of
operating the A5 on land, water, and in the air, as well as emergency procedures. The airplane inspires confidence.

Despite its training program, Icon has suffered two fatal,
high-profile accidents. Jon Karkow, the A5 designer and lead
test pilot, was killed in 2017 along with a passenger when, as the
NTSB determined, he made a navigational error and flew into a
blind canyon. Six months later, baseball great Roy Halladay died
when his A5 hit the Gulf of Mexico during a series of aggressive,
low-level maneuvers. An autopsy also found trace amounts of
amphetamine, morphine, and an insomnia drug in his system.
Some in the aviation community criticize Icon for its testosterone-heavy, action-packed marketing videos, saying the
low-altitude flying and aggressive maneuvering promote risky
flying. But Icon's training program emphasizes the hazards of the
low-altitude environment in which A5s are built to operate. Icon
delivered 44 aircraft in 2018 in spite of the accidents and other
setbacks, including certification and production delays.
About 40 percent of Icon buyers aren't pilots-and Icon
founder and former CEO Kirk Hawkins said the company has to
build pilots faster than it produces airplanes.
"We set out to make an airplane that was easy to fly, safe, and
fun as hell," Hawkins said. "It's an exceptional airplane, and now
we're producing exceptional pilots to fly it." FT

TO THE AIRPORT
Once a new pilot gets the feel of flying the airplane and operating
off the water, Icon instructors introduce airport operations and
the signage, radio terminology, and other aspects involved in
44 FLIGHT TRAINING JUNE 2019

dave.hirschman@aopa.org

Flight Training - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - June 2019