I have to say-I don't always follow the news on new aircraft.I have looked into amphib/land aircraft for a future purchase.I was totally unfamiliar with the Icon until flight was released.My first reaction from flying it in the sim-I don't want a flying car! I want something that looks, smells, and feels like an airplane....Wonder if others have the same reaction?Seems there have been trys in the past-the eurocoupe etc. of making the airplane a driving machine.Never seemed to work.Doesn't work for me...Wondered if I am unique...

I have a preference for Lake Aircraft over Icon Aircraft....But that is also because I would fly a Cessna 150 over a Diamond Aircraft as well.I like Yokes over Sticks. I am old school I guess.Cheers

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by ytzpilot

I've flown the Diamond for a few hours-still feels like an airplane. The icon feels/looks like a flying Ford-unless I am missing something...

Yes the Diamond does feel like an airplane and is still a great aircraft to fly. I am with you as I want to fly an aircraft and not have a simplified flying car.I like the basics of flying that they teach us back in Flight School.

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by ytzpilot

Just like MS flight is a way to get more casual gamers/people into the hobby of flight-simming, such is the Icon a way to get more people into the act of real-world flying. I mean lets face it GA flight (in the USA) is on the decline. So any attempt to get more people interested in this amazing hobby is all good for me. It take big balls(or big ovaries) for the average person to get into the air under their own auspices, and there are very few activities left(in America) where a person can literally take their life into their own hands. I actually saw a video on the Icon a long time ago and I also didn't care for how it was marketed. I don't even know if the current sport pilot rating that we have here (again in the USA) is a boon for the other more experienced pilots out there. After flying for a long time in the South Florida airspaces I know that there are a lot of coconuts out there in the skies.But I know this, the more people who have discovered and experienced GA flight for themselves and who want to pursue it as a hobby or vocation, the better for all the rest of us.BTW I used the parenthesis because I can only speak of my experiences as an American.

I don't like the flying car thing either. But don't forget MS swapped the Cessna for the microlight as the default aircraft in FSX. Maybe the Icon is the natural development of this philosophy - let people take their very first steps in the least 'aeroplane-like' aircraft, and they'll be more happy to try a more conventional set of wings later?Ian

Funny. Just a few hours ago I found a magazine here that featured an article about the Icon release - couple years old. Must've missed it somehow, but threw it away a minute ago.

My first reaction from flying it in the sim-I don't want a flying car! I want something that looks, smells, and feels like an airplane....

I hear ya. That thing certainly lacks aircraft feel by all means.

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by badderjet

What I find interesting is the philosophy. The business I just left which is a nitch market is following the same-to make more money we need to bring in more of the "normal" folk by making our product more popular.I just read an interesting piece by someone who maintains this is exactly the wrong philosophy. His point was you need to target your market, and make it more enticing to bring in more of that market. I have to say I agree.So we have flight that will supposedly bring more into the flight sim market because it has been made more "popular" and the icon that will bring in more pilots because it is more like a car than an airplane.I don't think this strategy will work. Most pilots I know are attracted by airplanes, and I doubt there is a huge market for flying cars among those who are not.I am betting this strategy will fail.

The corporate world has been dumbing down society for years now. Thank god I don't have to write Process Documentation's on anything anymore like I was doing back in North America...Geofa is correct as it does fail. Railroads start putting every procedure into Process Documentation's and early retire the old boys, the result is an increase in accidents in the workplace. The truth is you need that knowledge that people have to properly run any operation.Same with flying. To fly you really need to go to ground school and flight school to do it properly. Cutting corners is a slippery slope.Cheers