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Happy to report the first ever ICON Swarm was a success. Four Aircraft participated in the swarm- a trip from KGFL (Glens Falls, NY) to NY9 (Long Lake Seaplane base.) The weather for the swarm flight was perfect, but we were hampered by low clouds in other areas of the the Northeast that shrank our number from 8 to 4. Those in participation, in order of our call sign:

Swarm 1: Brett West
Swarm 2: Tony Cacciarelli
Swarm 3: Chris Patton (and co-pilot)
Swarm 4: Yossi Friedman (and co-pilot)

The flight was done in 1/2 mile formation, tip to tail. After an extensive briefing by Swarm 2, the Flight of 4 departed GFL, heading North over Lake George (known as The Queen of America Lakes and is 32 miles long), then to the southern end of the lake at 500 AGL due to numerous boats, but were able to fly down on deck for a few miles at the Northern end of the lake. From there we climbed to 3,500 AGL to get over the Adirondack Mountains and headed to Long Lake. Once at Long Lake, after a flyover inspection, we landed on the lake in 2 mile trail. Once the 4th ship was down, we gathered together and water taxied approximately 2 miles to the public beach. The beach, which a previous recon mission showed we could beach 8 Icons with wings out, had diminished to a very small beach due to a catastrophic flood earlier in the week. (Long Lake made national news.) But fear not, we were hungry and we were determined to make it to the Adirondack Hotel for the Saturday BBQ. The brilliantly designed Icon had the answer, we folded the wings in the water (it is doable, but requires a minimum of 2 people. One to hold the hull, the other to walk the wing.) With 4 Icons, wings folded, we squeezed in and used every bit of what little beach remained. (Please note, the ICON POH recommends NOT folding your wings in the water, but we proved it's possible, albeit tricky.) After a great lunch with the best company possible, we reversed our beaching and folding procedures and departed back to GFL in staggered flight, except Swarm 1 and Swarm 2 concluded with a tight formation into GFL with an overhead break to the left downwind runway 19 to a 1/2 mile formation landing. That was cool!

We are looking for any volunteers within IOPA to become regional "Swarm Planner." If anyone is interested, I am happy to help coach through it, super simple. For me, it was a complete blast, and I met new life-long friends. Plan a swarm, and attend a swarm, you won't regret it!

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Congrats Brett. First time for me seeing the wings folded WHILE in the water. The CG really shifts!

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It looked like a successful trip!! Sorry I missed it, got my radio fixed, a simple loose connection that you need to take the dash off for....but now fixed!