Want to get away but tired of driving to a crowded airport and cramming into an airliner?
How about hopping into a two-seat propeller plane that can be flown just about anywhere and land at the most remote places, including mountain lakes and desolate airfields. Better yet, a private pilot's license is not required.
A Marina del Rey company, hoping to get more people to fly planes for fun, is building a recreational flying boat that can take off and land both on airstrips and on water. But it's not for the budget-conscious. The plane costs $139,000, or about the price of a new Maserati Quattroporte.
Icon Aircraft, a private firm founded by a former F-16 fighter jet pilot, is hoping to exploit a little-known federal regulation approved in 2004 that opens the way for "light sport aircraft." It is a new category in aviation that is designed to make flying easier for more people.
Icon's plane, dubbed A5, resembles a large canopied Jet Ski with wings. The cockpit interior with side-by-side seats is roomy and feels more like a sports car than a plane.
Designed for recreation rather than transportation, sport planes are not allowed to go faster than 120 miles an hour, hold more than two people, or fly above 15,000 feet.
And pilots only need a sport aircraft license, which is less onerous than obtaining the traditional private pilot's license, requiring just half of the flight training.
Still, to address safety concerns, the Federal Aviation Administration created a training program for sport pilots that includes a minimum of 20 hours of flight instruction as well as a check flight with an FAA examiner.
Sports aircraft shouldn't be confused with tiny, single-seat ultralight planes, which have limited regulations. The ultralights, usually flown by hobbyists, can fly only during the day in unpopulated areas, can't go faster 64 miles an hour and hold only five gallons of fuel, limiting their use to short recreational flights at low altitude.
Icon's A5 is powered by a 100-horsepower engine with a red propeller mounted behind the cockpit. It can run either on aviation fuel or unleaded premium gasoline. Painted silver with red accents, the plane will be able to fly as slowly as 50 miles an hour or cruise at its maximum speed of 120 mph.
For those who want to take the plane on field trips, the 34-foot-long wing can be folded and tucked behind the tail so the plane can be placed on a trailer (an optional feature), much like a boat.
