Most of us know that compared to Actual Icing in RL, FSX's structural icing effect is extremely weak. Is there any way that you folks at HiFi can somehow give us the option to ramp up, both accumulation rate and density of FSX generated icing so that it will actually create a flight hazard in FSX?Right now as it stands, I can fly circles in clouds with freezing rain, with the Anti Ice equipment off and not build enough ice to affect flight performance.And just before anyone asks, yes, I am flying at an altitude and OAT where Structural Ice would build up the fastest. :) And I already have maximum structural icing cranked up to max on on the AS2012 Wx options... Just a thought, should I also crank up min icing in AS2012?JB

Edited January 7, 201214 yr by Buzz313th

I think the aircraft model would be the thing that needs to be customized in order to achieve this. IRIS did this on a small scale with their PC-9, which is freeware now by the way so go check it out. They made the canopy ice over so you couldn't see out and switching on window heat removes the ice. unfortunately it's not a gradual melt, but a near instant removal. They also had a hypoxia model for the pilot, if the pilot wasn't on oxygen above 10 or 14,000 feet.

I think the aircraft model would be the thing that needs to be customized in order to achieve this. IRIS did this on a small scale with their PC-9, which is freeware now by the way so go check it out. They made the canopy ice over so you couldn't see out and switching on window heat removes the ice. unfortunately it's not a gradual melt, but a near instant removal. They also had a hypoxia model for the pilot, if the pilot wasn't on oxygen above 10 or 14,000 feet.

Thanks, yeah I have that addon, really a blast to fly... Pretty much made me mad yesterday when I went to their site and found it for free now... Two years ago I had to pay for it along with the Texan II.JB

Edited January 7, 201214 yr by Buzz313th

i just saw a thread about this the other day...http://forum.avsim.net/topic/323006-icing-in-fsx/seems like partially it's up to the aircraft flightmodel how much it responds to the ice conditions, but that the effects also dissipate quickly. theres a link in there for a gauge in the avsim library which can show your icing level and also can apparently add more heavy duty icing effects so maybe that would help do something like what you're looking for.cheers-andy crosby

I'm gonna copy and paste a post I made after trying the ice gauge on the default cessna...The thread is herehttp://forum.avsim.net/topic/359060-ngx-feature-request-structural-icing/page__pid__2219023#entry2219023And I quote myself"I tried the Ice gauge out on the default cessna in severe icing and freezing rain. Accumulation rate was slow, but it did do what the author said it would do. I flew circles in the weather for about 5 minutes, enough time to get the gauge to turn red with AFSD indicating an "Ice Weight" of 20 lbs. I noticed a decrease in lift, requiring a higher angle of attack and an increase in drag. Kept the ice on the plane until I landed where the approach and landing needed quite a bit more throttle to stay on normal approach speed.Unfortunately, since the gauge seems like it has a fixed accumulation rate and doesn't increase rate for more surface area (larger aircraft) then I think to get to just 1% of the NGX's Empty weight would take a lifetime.Ohh well."JB

PMDG J41 has nice icing effects

PMDG J41 has nice icing effects

Nice to look at, but that's it.JBSent from my iPhone using TapatalkJB

I don't think I've ever seen icing when flying through a cloud with the appropriate conditions. I have seen considerable icing when other conditions warrant it. I prefer to avoid icing conditions, however....I've spent a lot of time flying a heavily modified Grumman Goose and have encountered icing many times. I finally added a STRUCTURAL_ICE_PERCENT readout to my custom flight test gauge and disovered several things. For example, ice can accumulate at different rates, and can go well above 100%. Ice does not dissipate instantly unless you have anti-icinig equipment (which I added, since the original Gooses had leading edge boots). The affect of structural ice appears to add one pound to the aircraft weight for each one percent of ice. I've seen a couple of thousand pounds of extra weight and this does indeed affect aircraft performance. In the end I simply added the ice percent to the aircraft weight on my gauge and it seems about right. I'm not sure if a larger aircraft would notice a greater effect, or if it would still be one pound per one percent of ice. Obviously, in the real world, the ice does not add that much weight, but affects the airfoil characteristics. But the extra weight seems to be a good compromise, if that's what they're actually doing.I have also noticed, although not very often, that prop heat does generate an effect when turned on if there is icing on the propellers. The RPMs will increase momentarily, then drop back to normal. I'm not sure how fast ice should build up when flying through a cloud when conditions are right. The normal rates for ice buildup are from one percent every 2 or 3 seconds for trace amounts to one percent 2 or 3 times per second (if memory serves). This latter situation can be frightening.Hook

Hve you tried the ice gauge at avsim?JB

I haven't tried it, but I downloaded it and checked out his documentation and code. Seems like a pretty good implementation. Eventually I'll compare it to what I'm using and see if my "one percent of ice equals one pound of weight" is accurate. I do like his implementaton of freezing rain. I might have implemented his departure from controlled flight based on angle of attack rather than airspeed, but I'd have to experiment with it a bit to see if it worked in a reasonable manner.You might crank up minimum cloud icing in the AS2012 options to get more ice. :)Hook

I haven't tried it, but I downloaded it and checked out his documentation and code. Seems like a pretty good implementation. Eventually I'll compare it to what I'm using and see if my "one percent of ice equals one pound of weight" is accurate.I do like his implementaton of freezing rain. I might have implemented his departure from controlled flight based on angle of attack rather than airspeed, but I'd have to experiment with it a bit to see if it worked in a reasonable manner.You might crank up minimum cloud icing in the AS2012 options to get more ice. :)Hook

Yeah I did. Running AS2012 min and max icing to the furthest right on the sliders.Hey, you mentioned you looked at the xml code for the icing gauge. Any chance you can modify the xml to accelerate structural ice buildup and also the threshold to where the gauge changes status from blue, to yellow, to red?JB

I can't make ice build up faster than FSX defaults. My own experience with icing, before I was monitoring my ice gauge closely (I didn't keep the flight test window open all the time) and before I had de-icing boots, was that by the time I realized I was in severe icing, I was already in trouble. I landed at the nearest airport, about 10 miles away, then spent 15 to 30 minutes in time compression waiting for the ice to dissipate. Landing wasn't fun, as I was well over 1000 pounds above my max weight. After that I tried to avoid icing conditions entirely, or at least get below the ice if I could, or turn back. Icing conditions can cover several states if you check the met/reps display in AS2012. They're not small or of brief duration.You can change the threshold yourself, and you'll probably want to exeriment a bit to find what's right for you. Make a copy of the file IceWarning.xml and then open the original in Notepad. You'll see a line that says:(A:Empty Weight,pounds) 100 / (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)... about halfway down. Change the 100 to another number. If you raise it, you'll get the warnings sooner. If you lower it, you'll get them later. But keep in mind that once you reach the red zone, you have about 20 seconds to get out of the red zone (and freezing rain ice doesn't go away until you're out of icing conditions) or lose control of your aircraft. In any case you'll get the blue warning almost instantly.If you don't like the effect, or somehow mess up the file (unlikely) you still have the backup copy you made to revert any changes.Good luck.Hook

You can change the threshold yourself, and you'll probably want to exeriment a bit to find what's right for you. Make a copy of the file IceWarning.xml and then open the original in Notepad. You'll see a line that says:(A:Empty Weight,pounds) 100 / (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)... about halfway down. Change the 100 to another number. If you raise it, you'll get the warnings sooner. If you lower it, you'll get them later. But keep in mind that once you reach the red zone, you have about 20 seconds to get out of the red zone (and freezing rain ice doesn't go away until you're out of icing conditions) or lose control of your aircraft. In any case you'll get the blue warning almost instantly.

ThanksWill definately give it a try... Thats exactly what I was looking for.JB

That was the quick-and-dirty version. If you want to customize it even more, replace these two lines:(A:Empty Weight,pounds) 100 / (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)(L:OnePctEW,pounds) 2 * (>L:TwoPctEW,pounds)with20 (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)40 (>L:TwoPctEW,pounds)and replace the numbers 20 and 40 with your preferred numbers. The 20 and 40 represent one percent and two percent for a plane with a 2000 pound empty weight. The higher these numbers, the later you'll get the warnings and effects. The TwoPctEW number should be higher than the OnePctEW number. In this case, the yellow warning will trigger at 20, the red warning at 40. Blue triggers at 2 pounds.In this case, the IceWarning will probably be specific to a single plane. You can have an ice gauge for each plane by copying the four BMP and one XML files to the panel folder for that plane and replacing this line in the panel.cfg filegauge45=ICE!IceWarning,250,20,40,20withgauge45=.!IceWarning,250,20,40,20Hook

That was the quick-and-dirty version. If you want to customize it even more, replace these two lines:(A:Empty Weight,pounds) 100 / (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)(L:OnePctEW,pounds) 2 * (>L:TwoPctEW,pounds)with20 (>L:OnePctEW,pounds)40 (>L:TwoPctEW,pounds)and replace the numbers 20 and 40 with your preferred numbers. The 20 and 40 represent one percent and two percent for a plane with a 2000 pound empty weight. The higher these numbers, the later you'll get the warnings and effects. The TwoPctEW number should be higher than the OnePctEW number. In this case, the yellow warning will trigger at 20, the red warning at 40. Blue triggers at 2 pounds.In this case, the IceWarning will probably be specific to a single plane. You can have an ice gauge for each plane by copying the four BMP and one XML files to the panel folder for that plane and replacing this line in the panel.cfg filegauge45=ICE!IceWarning,250,20,40,20withgauge45=.!IceWarning,250,20,40,20Hook

Thanks Hook, great stuff.Haven't tried any of this yet, but will hopefully tonight after dinner.JBSent from my iPhone using TapatalkJB