They really did do a fine job of styling the design of the Icon. A fine mix of function and style.

Water level is down at the lake, but it was like glass yesterday. Just one pack after another. Alternated between the two Icons to keep the ESC cool. I succeeded at recreating their (Icon) hydro testing shot, taking off while dragging a wingtip. Sweet! Slipped in the Super Cub once just for giggles. What a day. What a plane!

Today isn't looking too bad either.

Life's good in an Icon. I'm so hooked.

Overcast today, but still nice. The photo weirdness is a byproduct of the "panorama" mode in iPhone.

Kind of a cool effect.

And this...

Originally Posted by Renfield

Hi. My name is George, and I am addicted to the Icon A5 Light Sport aircraft. I bought my first PZ Icon A5 in May. As a decent heli pilot and former slope soarer, I chose it for my first water plane. Bad idea! Don't do that. Get a Super Cub.

After replacing the original fuselage in July, and subsequently breaking it three more times, I added a second Icon.

Both are still flying now, with many un-crashed packs on each. Even the former hangar queen has seen probably 50 flights and fly-alongs and looks new. I'm learning to appreciate the challenge of flying a very cool looking/sounding/performing water plane.

As the original is aging (and by aging I mean putting on 6lbs of epoxy), I find myself wandering through the LHS to look at a new Icon. Even when it's not on my way.

And the possibility, however remote, of a micro-Icon as3x might be my undoing. I could easily see myself with a fleet!

My supercub, albatros, carbon cub are lonesome. I'm considering cashing out my 401K to get a full sized Icon.

Help!

Hi George.
I am sure there are worse addictions out there.....I can't think of any, but I am sure they are out there.
Just kidding. There is nothing wrong with loving a great plane. But I am right there with you about the micro with AS3X......man, my wife's ganna kill me when that one comes out.....Just sayin'.

When is it time to hang up the foam? It's great that HH makes so many replacement parts available. But when do you just get a whole new bird?

Number One has multiple contusions/repairs to every piece of foam. Thomas B, I read where you sand the leading edge. Cracked me up!! It's amazing that mine still flew. Once, I hit mid-wing on my neighbors dock lamp post. A honking treated, braced 2x6. It left quite an impression!

Yet I've put so many packs through her since May. This last crash was totally my bad. Tried again to keep the wingtip in the water on takeoff. Beautiful, until I overcorrected. As I came alongside her in the boat, the landing/nav lights were flickering, like the Titanic. So sad.

I can fix the foam. Again. Motor may be shot. Interior was totally flooded for about 90 seconds, with a fresh pack. After a thorough dry-out ESC was glowing/smoking when I plugged it up. HH shows the original as discontinued. That would be $100 just in electronics for an aging trainer, assuming the receiver and servo survived.

So is she an ornament now? Just a crate of spare parts? If the original ESC is discontinued, when will PNP/BNF boxes have the new goods? Wait until Spring?

So glad I have a spare.

Originally Posted by Renfield

When is it time to hang up the foam? .......... Thomas B, I read where you sand the leading edge. Cracked me up!! It's amazing that mine still flew. Once, I hit mid-wing on my neighbors dock lamp post. A honking treated, braced 2x6. It left quite an impression!
:

I have found that keeping the airfoil smooth and clean, with no sharp mold marks or loose covering on the LE of the wing, can have a major effect on how a model handles near the stall.

Dings have less effect, as long as they are more or less evenly distributed on both sides of the wing.

I find that a lot of beginners do not see the issues with the aircraft when the wing is compromised and simply do not know how poorly the model is actually flying. They simply assume the model is supposed to drop a wing hard near the stall and that it is normal for the model to stall at higher speed than it should.

Try putting a knife slit in your wing LE on one side and the insert a thin card stock strip that sits a little proud of the airfoil at the very front. Take the model up and approach a stall .. could even just use tape.

Hey all,

See my post in the ICON thread on the ESC. New one will be available shortly.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=1454


Hope that helps.

Matt Andren
Parkzone/Hobbyzone Product Development
Horizon Hobby

Originally Posted by Thomas B

I have found that keeping the airfoil smooth and clean, with no sharp mold marks or loose covering on the LE of the wing, can have a major effect on how a model handles near the stall.

Dings have less effect, as long as they are more or less evenly distributed on both sides of the wing.

I find that a lot of beginners do not see the issues with the aircraft when the wing is compromised and simply do not know how poorly the model is actually flying. They simply assume the model is supposed to drop a wing hard near the stall and that it is normal for the model to stall at higher speed than it should.

Try putting a knife slit in your wing LE on one side and the insert a thin card stock strip that sits a little proud of the airfoil at the very front. Take the model up and approach a stall .. could even just use tape.

I pulled the trigger on the small HK version, so I might try sanding the l.e.on that bird. If it arrives complete.

And my LHS is a kmp distributor, so they're getting a couple of the big ones in. The writing is on the wall...

I just don't know where I can fly from land to water. Yet.

I use corrision X on my esc and reciever and so far i have dunked my planes more than a couple times and every thing still works fine. joe

Originally Posted by Renfield

I pulled the trigger on the small HK version, so I might try sanding the l.e.on that bird. If it arrives complete.

Got mine in the mail on Monday, and was relieved to find that it had both left AND right sponsons! Also came with molded plastic wing servo covers, which I hadn't seen mentioned before, and 2-part epoxy rather than the bottle of mystery glue that tends to be DOA. Wonder if they have tweaked things a bit in the kit?

Also removed the terrible stickers and went to town with a Sharpie:

The two left float kit probably has a mirror twin version out there somewhere with two right floats, but it is a very rare occurrence, not something that happens regularly.

I never use two part epoxy on EPO type foam. Unless carefully prepped by sanding and the cleaned with alcohol, epoxy adheres poorly...and even then, not as well as the Uhu type contact adhesives.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

The two left float kit probably has a mirror twin version out there somewhere with two right floats, but it is a very rare occurrence, not something that happens regularly.

I never use two part epoxy on EPO type foam. Unless carefully prepped by sanding and the cleaned with alcohol, epoxy adheres poorly...and even then, not as well as the Uhu type contact adhesives.

Yea, it may not necessarily be epoxy, I just assumed it was because there was a tube labeled A and another one labeled B. The rest was in Chinese, so I didn't actually use the stuff.

I sanded the wing LE on your advice, but I was wondering about the servo wire channels; would those open slots in the wing also contribute to causing a stall? If so, I'll cover them (and the flap slots) with tape.

Originally Posted by Firehawk989

Got mine in the mail on Monday, and was relieved to find that it had both left AND right sponsons! Also came with molded plastic wing servo covers, which I hadn't seen mentioned before, and 2-part epoxy rather than the bottle of mystery glue that tends to be DOA. Wonder if they have tweaked things a bit in the kit?

Also removed the terrible stickers and went to town with a Sharpie:

Excellent work with the fat-Sharpies. Sounds sort of like jumbo-shrimp.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

I never use two part epoxy on EPO type foam. Unless carefully prepped by sanding and the cleaned with alcohol, epoxy adheres poorly...and even then, not as well as the Uhu type contact adhesives.

Just expanded polyolefin or are there other foams to avoid with epoxy? My PZ Icon held great with epoxy (z foam).

Also, Thomas does your large Icon have pre-set nav lighting locations? It kind of looked that way in close up. I'd like to outfit it with the entire scale lighting.