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Showing posts from March 31, 2019

The BUSKLAW April Newsletter: Pulling Apart the Purchase Agreement for the ICON A5: "The Jet Ski with Wings"

The ICON A5 is an amphibious "light-sport aircraft" that is marketed primarily to adventurous amateur pilots with deep pockets (and spacious home garages in which to store their ICONs). The plane has a recreational focus; it can seat only two, has limited load capacity, and isn't intended to go very far.  The cost of the plane was $139K when first introduced in 2006  but is now $389K for a "fully-loaded version." YouTube is full of videos showing how much fun you can have with an ICON A5 (especially with water landings and take-offs), bringing to mind the "jet ski with wings" analogy. So the ICON A5 is perhaps the ultimate high-tech, outdoor adult toy (unless you're afraid of heights). T here have been several fatalities with the A5, but these apparently resulted from pilot  error in one case and reckless flying in another rather than from mechanical defects or design flaws.  The ICON A5 Purchase Agreement (including the Operating Agreeme