Skimmer
The Skimmer is a seaplane in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
Description
Design
In all its appearances in, the Skimmer is simply a Dodo with a pair of large pontoons on the bottom in place of landing gears; the GTA San Andreas rendition further includes reinforcement on the connection between the pontoons and fuselage, as well as harnesses between the pontoons and fuselage and the tailfin. Although seemingly plausible, the design of the Skimmer is somewhat unpractical in real-life given the weight and size of the pontoon in relation of the plane and its power, which makes takeoff more difficult that in the games.
Whilst being able to land on water, the Skimmer in GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories does not feature any functional doors, resulting in the player simply warped inside the plane when entered. If the player exits the plane, however, they immediately spawn on top of the plane's wing and the plane would immediately stop no matter the speed. This problem was rectified in GTA San Andreas, when the plane's door can be opened, and the player can enter and exit through the doors, a feature only possible with the Skimmer's recategorization from a boat to a plane.
Unlike the Dodo, the Skimmer in GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas may come in a variety of two-tone body colors (as opposed to the same red-white color scheme of the Dodo). The Skimmer in GTA Vice City Stories simply comes with an all-grey body color.
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Performance
Aside its beneficial amphibious nature, the Skimmer's performance in the air is very much similar to the Dodo in that they both have the same sluggish acceleration and poor top speed, owing to a low-power engine; the Skimmer also has the tendency of stalling easily even if the upward pitch of the plane is only moderately steep. These traits makes the plane merely suitable for steady, slow air travel.
Locations
- GTA Vice City
- At the back of the InterGlobal Films Studio in Prawn Island after the mission Dildo Dodo.
- GTA San Andreas
- At the Sherman Dam in Bone County
- At the beach near Bayside Marina in Tierra Robada
- At a jetty at Valle Ocultado near the Tee Pee Motel in Bone County.
- GTA Vice City Stories
- By a jetty in Downtown behind The Greasy Chopper, just south of the Downtown Police Station.
- To the east of the lighthouse in Ocean Beach. Available on the PlayStation 2 version only.
Trivia
- The Skimmer is the only fixed-wing plane in GTA Vice City.
- In GTA Vice City, if a Skimmer is flown into a Pay 'n' Spray, the Skimmer will then have wheels.
- In GTA Vice City Stories, the plane can reach incredible heights by taking off at a 45 degree angle and at rare times land on top of towers.
- The Skimmer is the only aircraft in GTA Vice City Stories which isn´t featured in any storyline mission or sub-mission.
- Since the plane has no functional doors in GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, if the player enters one while with a wanted level, the cops obviously won't be able to open the door and bust the player on the inside. The cops will simply run against the Skimmer's pontoons without doing anything else.