For a break from the big- and small- but turbine-powered iron that seems to prevail at a typical NBAA show, a visit to Icon Aircraft’s booth (N4510) might be on order. The Vacaville, Calif. company is here with its recreational amphibian A5 piston, a fun and safety-focused design targeted squarely at people who enjoy the outdoors. So far, Icon has tallied more than 1,500 orders for the two-seat folding-wing amphib, and deliveries began in August. Interestingly, 40 percent of buyers are non-pilots.

Icon invited me to fly the A5; my demo pilot was Kirk Hawkins, company CEO and founder and a former Air Force F-16 and American Airlines 767 pilot who also holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering.

Sitting in the water at Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin on a gorgeous summer afternoon, the A5 looks like it wants to go–flying, camping on a beach, carving liquid donuts on the smooth lake’s surface.

A unique feature of the A5 is the most prominent instrument on the panel: a large angle-of-attack (AOA) indicator, smack in the center of the pilot’s field of view. The actual AOA is depicted by a wing shape instead of a needle.

Hawkins water-taxied away from the dock then added full power; after a graceful water turn he lifted the A5 off the water at about 40 to 45 knots. Then I got to take the controls. Unlike other light sport aircraft that I’ve flown, the A5’s controls are highly harmonious; pitch and roll forces feel natural and well-matched, and the pitch control is not too sensitive.

Hawkins demonstrated some of the A5’s spin-resistant airframe features that should make the A5 safer for the average and new pilot. The A5 can be stalled, but three key design goals dictated what happens at the stall. First is that it be resistant to spinning, second that it be controllable while in a stall and third that it have a slow descent rate during a power-off full stall that would still allow a survivable crash.

Pulling the power back, the A5 remained fully controllable in the stall while descending about 600 fpm. The fact that the A5 doesn’t react to a stall by dropping a wing suddenly, even when stepping on the rudder, is a significant accomplishment.

Hawkins also demonstrated an accelerated stall right into the buffet, and the A5 didn’t drop a wing and remained solidly stable as he unloaded the wing and recovered from the stall. He also showed me how the A5 will climb in a full stall with full power applied, and he said it would do so even at mtow.

The bottom line for the spin-resistant features, he said, is that even in a high AOA situation, the outboard one-third of the wing remains flying, which is what allows the pilot to still have control of the A5 in a stall. “The key is not to punish people if they’re not perfect [pilots],” he explained. “It’s an extraordinary safety benefit.”

I flew around some more and landed and took off a few times. With flaps set at full (30 degrees) and the gear up, I brought the power back and let the A5 gradually descend. The touchdown on the water was a little anti-climatic; the hull made contact briefly, skipped back into the air, then touched down again and stuck. I pulled the power back and the hull grabbed the water more firmly and we were down.