Skimmer

The Skimmer is a seaplane in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and seen in the first Grand Theft Auto V trailer.

Design
In all of its appearances, 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.

While able to land on water, the Skimmer in GTA Vice City 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 are immediately spawned on top of the plane's wing. 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 Carl Johnson's ability to swim, which Tommy Vercetti does not have. In GTA Vice City Stories, if the player enters the Skimmer, they will be warped.

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. In GTA Vice City and Vice City Stories, the Skimmer doesn't have any doors.

Performance
Aside from 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. However, the Skimmer has a tendency of stalling easier. This makes the plane only suitable for steady, slow air travel. However, in San Andreas, the Skimmer has 4 propellers instead of the 2 that the Dodo has. This is probably their excuse for why the Skimmer has such similar handling to the Dodo.

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.

Grand Theft Auto V

 * TBA

Trivia

 * In GTA San Andreas, the Skimmer plays the radio CSR 103.9 when entered.
 * The Skimmer is the only controllable fixed-wing plane in GTA Vice City.
 * In GTA Vice City, if a Skimmer is flown into a Pay 'n' Spray, nothing will happen, unlike a Helicopter which will be resprayed and also come out with wheels.
 * In GTA Vice City Stories, the plane can reach incredible heights by taking off at a 45 degree angle.
 * 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 on GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, if the player enters one while with a wanted level, the cops 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.
 * The Skimmer in GTA San Andreas is the only airplane in the whole game that won't explode if it collides head-on with any solid object. This could be because of its pontoons, which have a solid area that may take up space past the front end of the airplane.
 * In GTA San Andreas, the propellers of the Skimmer suffer from a visual glitch. When they aren't rotating, they look exactly like the propellers of a Dodo. However, when they start to rotate and pick up speed, they appear wider and with a more rigid, triangular shape, just like the Skimmer from GTA Vice City. This is because the Skimmer's texture files have been handed down from GTA Vice City.
 * In GTA San Andreas, if the player lands the Skimmer upside down in the water, the airplane will sink a few feet, then turn right-side up very quickly, and slowly float to the surface, where it will be pilotable again.
 * In GTA San Andreas, if the player is flying on the water, and then tilts the plane so that only one pontoon is touching the water, mist will still be ejected from both pontoons, even from the one that isn't touching the water.
 * In GTA San Andreas, if you land the plane on a slightly inclined surface or a hill and you exit it, the Skimmer will start to slide downhill and won't stop sliding until something stops it.
 * In GTA Vice City's game files, the Skimmer is defined as a boat instead of a plane, possibly because of its ability to float on water. This was also the case with GTA III's Dodo, where it was defined as a car. In San Andreas, however, it is defined as a plane.

Navigation
Skimmer Skimmer Skimmer Skimmer Wodolot