Top 5 Best Seaplanes In The World.jpg

The Parking Lot
7 followers
10 Video Views·Oct 20, 2022
Hello, welcome to Mojo Grip. Mike here. Today we're going to check out some of the best seat
planes in the industry and for the purpose of this video we'll be focusing on light aircrafts.
So generally speaking these airplanes have two seats and they're all powered by a small Rotax
engine. The first airplane on the list is the Icon A5. The Icon A5 is a light sport aircraft,
great advancement in technology in my opinion and this airplane is actually very neat by design
and it has a lot of cool features. One of them being those folding wings. You can literally put
this airplane in your garage but as you may already know the Icon brand has been plagued
by a lot of troubles over the years. This is why you have very little amount of airplanes flying
today. That said you will find a lot of happy owners still flying the airplanes today. The
Icon A5 is fitted with the Rotax 912 engine. This powers the airplane to cruise around 95 miles per
hour and you have a nice useful load between 430 and 550 pounds depending on the configuration of
the airplane. Icon is also considered the premium brand for seaplanes because this airplane is not
cheap. Starting base price $269,000 and then depending on the features you add on to the tab
you're looking at close to the $400,000 for the Icon A5. Number two on the list is the Super
Petrel LS. Now this airplane is not as popular at least here in the US but you do have a few
hundred of them flying around the world today. The airplane was originally designed in Brazil
and they do have a base here in Ormond Beach Florida. One of the first obvious things you
notice about this aircraft is the biplane feature. You see you have those double wings on it. I don't
know if that adds to a safety feature or that's just cosmetic stuff but the airplane looks good
by design and just like the Icon you have a Rotax 912 engine but with the Petrel you can also opt
in for a Turbosport engine in the 914 and guess what it won't cost you a dime more. The base price
for the Super Petrel is $175,000 okay and that's if you wanted a less powerful 912 which is also
fuel injected or if you opt in for the turbocharged Rotax 914 engine you'll pay around the same price
and with these engines you get a nice climb rate for the 912 you're at a thousand feet per minute
in the turbocharged engine you're at 1400 feet per minute. Your cruise speed is roughly around the
same between 80 to 100 knots so you're looking at 80 to maybe 110 miles per hour in this airplane.
You have a nice useful load of 537 pounds and you can fly for up to six hours. I'm not sure I can
take that long in a small aircraft but you do have that available to you if you wanted to travel for
longer. Again this aircraft is not as popular here in the U.S. but if you are interested in a demo
flight you can always reach out to the company down in Ormond Beach, Florida. Number three is
the Vickers Wave. This is an aircraft designed by Paul Vickers from New Zealand. Now this airplane
we actually haven't seen a flying prototype yet all we have is just the design and when you look
at it it's pretty much an Icon A5. It looks a little sleeker but the proportions are almost
the same and we can expect this airplane to also use a Rotax 912 engine with similar performance
number and cruise speed and some useful load. Generally speaking a lot of these light sport
aircraft don't have much useful load. You can carry two people and maybe some baggage. Now what we're
hoping for with the Vickers Wave is that it costs a lot less than the Icon A5. Currently the price
is set at $180,000 but it's too soon to assume what the actual production airplane will cost
but until then we'll keep our fingers crossed. Next is the MVP. Just the name alone makes this
airplane really attractive. Now when you look at this airplane it does look a little bit bigger
in size and that's because a lot more practical features were built into this plane. MVP wants
you to believe you can take this airplane, go fishing, go camping. It's basically a living boat.
You have room for a dock to chill on. You have room to sleep in. There's so much more to this
airplane than just flying. Now performance wise you're not getting much more. You're getting
similar performance numbers as the other Afibian airplanes listed in this video. The MVP is powered
by the Rotax 912 or the 914 engine and you expect the cruise speed is again between 80 and 100 knots.
You have a useful load of 450 pounds. Now the best part about this airplane is that you get
all these features for less than $200,000. The projected starting price for the MVP
is $189,000 and we've saved the best for last. One of the best seaplanes you can get your hands
on in the market today is the Sea Ray. It has just about every feature you can expect from a light
sport. The Sea Ray is an experimental airplane which means you get to customize your plane
as much as you want. Design wise it's not the most sleek or best looking airplane from the list
but it is the best bang for the money and the interior of this airplane is just as sporty as
you get in the Icon A5. Performance wise you're looking at a cruise speed of 90 to 100 knots.
Useful load for the experimental category close to 600 pounds. You have 570 pounds and if you opt
in for the light sport version of the airplane you're looking at useful load of 440 pounds.
Perhaps you want more performance well you can get it with the new Rotax 915 in the Sea Ray.
This is also one of the few companies that's actually tested the new Rotax engine. Now the
best part about a Sea Ray is the price. You can easily get into one of these airplanes for only
$125,000 and if you search good enough in the used market you can get into one of these planes
for less than $80,000. Now that's what I call real bang for the money in a modern aircraft.
Well that is it for today's video. If you enjoyed it please give a thumbs up and if this is your
first time be sure to hit that subscribe button for me. Again my name is Mike. Thank you guys so
much for watching and I will catch you on the next video.
