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I had somebody ask me about owning an ICON. He lives around Prescott AZ and wanted owner realistic performance/handling at that altitude and temp, and if an ICON can do it. I did tell him about the 916 experimental conversion out there.

Since I am a sea level guy, I have no experience with a stock plane in AZ. Any input?

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The Seattle team did a bunch of flying at Lake Isabel (6K I believe). I would start with Alex Mason for info.

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Thanks for the info!

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We did all our our high altitude testing at Donner Lake and Lake Tahoe 6000 ft. I also have taken the airplane on my own to Donner in the summer time where DA's can get into the 8000-8500 ft many times I chose not to land on the lake with a passenger. Kirk used to take them to Tahoe every summer but Kirk always pushed it and there were times he couldn't get the plane off the water. The airplane is a dog at these altitudes especially at gross weight. In the right hands its possible and safe but one must really know mountain flying, such as Density altitude, down drafts, wind sheer, wave effects, and always have outs, mostly just knowing when not to fly. I grew up and learned to fly in Reno on 160HP 172's, I then went to College at Embry Riddle in Prescott, AZ so I know that area fairly well and high altitude flying well. I also know the A5 likely better than anyone. I did the first integration on of the 915iS with an outside customer and later did the first ICON company test aircraft with the 915iS back in 2019. That engine with a proper constant speed prop is awesome, because its turbo normalized it makes 140 HP all the way to 15K ft. The 916 would be even better making 160HP to 15K ft. That combo at altitude would be amazing.

Anyway one of our old IAFI's and Safety and Standardization pilots lives in Prescott Valley. He could likely give the guy the lay of the land and let him know his assessment. I can put you in contact if you wish.

in short could it be an airplane for that altitude? Sure understanding it will be a dog. Should it be? depends on the pilot.

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I have operated an ICON out of Santa Fe, NM (6348 MSL) for the last 5+ years and it performs surprisingly well in cooler temperatures but is a challenge when warm/hot.
I have had it as high as 13,000’ briefly crossing the Uintah mountains in Utah (no pax) and above the Santa Fe ski basin in winter at 12,000. The heat of Prescott will be a challenge in the summer. Have flown in the summer to Page, AZ and Lake Powell in the 80s and the ICON can handle that if you treat it like a piper cub or C150.

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I operated a stock A5 in Arizona for several years. Prescott is no issue. Icon does fine at higher airports, however high lakes like most seaplanes not a good idea with high density altitudes. That said I operated from Lake Powell which is just under 4000 ft. Fine on a cool day but not summer time. Most other Arizona lakes under 2000 ft.
Robert Magee 602-390-4663

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May/June 2024 I flew through AZ coming in from Havasu and leaving out NM to El Paso. Went to Flagstaff, Grand Canyon (crossing both ways), landed Marble Canyon (spicy!), Page, Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Sedona, Phoenix, Roosevelt Lake, and down through Safford.

Temps were well over 100's and I could not quite hit the return southbound 11,500 crossing altitude for Grand Canyon coming up to the rim due to high density alt (almost 14,000) - made 11,100 but was "popping a wheelie" until I cleared the rim and got the cooler air over the canyon proper). Lake Powell was Memorial Day and I took a few lighter folks up but it was a slog getting off the water. By myself it was fine, but still had to watch takeoffs with any turns required at low AGL (due to exiting slot canyons).

Also took off Flagstaff (7,000 ground) heading westward - did my math and was climbing out faster than the treetops were rising but not by much (so do the math and give yourself margin).

Generally though the week or two of flying I did there was very rewarding. But you can't just "wing it" there - you have to watch your density altitude for sure if it's hot.

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...I should add that I have the 4-blade with increased MTOW.

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Awesome input!

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One other thing - pretty much the whole time from SoCal through to mid-Texas was in 100+ temps. When I flew across Texas from El Paso to Austin, I hit "the green line" - where the moister Gulf air starts to make it possible for stuff to actually grow.

When that happened, in a matter of about 2-3 minutes, my cruise went from around 74-75kts in the dry, hot air, to 85-86kts - I actually had to double check I wasn't in some kind of downward attitude as the engine sound changed, the plane picked up speed, and everything just felt way different.

I recommend flying the plane in some of these places this way - it's VERY cool to see the "math in action" - in lower/cooler air you kind of get used to the math not mattering. It matters, and when you experience it, that direct linkage to the plane's responsiveness is worth everything.

The 3-4 weeks I spent in those temps over that terrain (desert, mountains, canyons, etc.) was the most valuable flying I could have done and I had no idea how much it made me realize how important all the training and physics truly are.

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Love the "Math in Action" comment! It makes flying the plane that much more fun, but also reminds one that those performance graphs are real. And I read the whole thread waiting for the MTOW upgrade comment, so thanks for bringing that into the conversation as well.

I am one of the Seattle owners and have been into Lake Isabel probably 80+ times. Isabel is at 2,800'. Lake Chelan 1,148'. There are smaller lakes at slightly higher altitudes I've been into as well. But nothing like Tahoe. But even at 2,800' on a hot day (that would be 85-90 in the mountains here) the effect of DA is noticeable. But so has been the 4-blade with the additional VGs. I am much more comfortable with a passenger at those lakes now when the DA is high as I know the lake well enough to see the difference in where the hull breaks free of the water.

BTW, I took Kaylee Brown, an Icon factory pilot at the time, into Lk. Isabel to show her the details of the approach. The next day, she flew it herself to film the Icon segment on mountain flying. I thought that was a very good segment.

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Wow I’ve never heard of that!

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A very cool feature of G3X is that on the ground it displays DA in a window just below Kollsman window. I'm sure this could save a few lives in hot/high operations if ATIS is not reporting DA, because I do not believe the average pilot calculates it.
You can also make one of your user-configured data fields across top of screen continuously display DA, but the default ground display was brilliant of Garmin in my opinion.