Just completed CEJ4 to CYLW using FSX real world weather. Temps were between +2C and -12C plenty of scattered cloud. After reaching an initial cruise altitude of 14,500 with no pitot icing I tried varying the altitude between 10,000 and 16,000 with no result.

 

I then tried (about 30 minutes of) the same flight using REX (today's weather) with the same result.

 

Tomorrow I'll repeat using the RealAir Beech Duke to see what happens.

 

Scott - I know this is clutching at straws but..... could you tell me the file size and date of your T210M .air file (mine is 21/06/2011 15.21 (7KB).

 

Bruce

Scott - I know this is clutching at straws but..... could you tell me the file size and date of your T210M .air file (mine is 21/06/2011 15.21 (7KB).

 

Very strange, Bruce. My .air file time, date and size match your's exactly, other than the obvious TZ difference (mine's 9:21).

 

I'll take the 210 out again tonight, load up some wx and test again. Will be interested to see if your Duke is still working properly.

 

Scott

As a last resort I used the FSX User-defined weather option to set up a 5,000 feet deep bank of cumuls cloud (2,000 - 7,000 feet) of type "overcast" (8/8) with (initially) Severe icing and (for a second flight Moderate icing). Temperature was set to 35F at ground level.

 

Flying the T210m: As I entered cloud at 2,000 feet the ASI flipped to zero ( :lol: ) and subsiquently responded correctly to the pitot heater being switched on and off (several times). With the pitot heater now on (and the ASI working) I continued to fly in the cloud - interestingly (a first time for me) after some time the engine became sluggish to the point of stall as (I presume) ice began to accumulate on the wings and prop. Unfortunately I did not have time to explore further so I'll have to leave untill I get the chance for another flight tonight.

 

So the good news is my T210 is reacting to the environment - it must be that I have been mistaken about the weather conditions that I'd assumed would cause the pitot tubes to ice up. Some further research required by me I think.

 

Bruce

Bruce,

 

Glad you've been able to demonstrate that pitot/static icing/heating is working OK. Unfortunately, now you've run smack into the infamous FSX "Carb Heat bug". Your fuel-injected, turbocharged plane doesn't have a carb or carb heat, of course, but nevertheless FSX sort of acts like it does. The simple solution is to turn on the non-existent carb heat on your plane. What?! In other words, hit the "h" key.

 

I also include this as a pre-takeoff checklist item on my fuel-injected planes, right along with pitot heat so that I don't have to worry about it. There is no engine performance penalty as there would be if this were a carburated plane, so it's easiest to think of this as a workaround to the bug, turn it on somewhere near the start of your flight and go on. Just do it and forget about it. Some have even implemented a little "gauge" to automatically do this, and the Milviz B55 Baron builds an automatic turn on right into the model. It's the only fuel-injected piston plane I'm aware of where you can actually forget about this.

 

Scott

Interesting - Thanks for your help and advice.

 

....out of interest I installed Charles Owen's "ICE gauge" in the 2D cockpit of the default Cessna 172 (changed the gauge location on the panel - and it looks ok too). I found it works really well - first turning blue (ice on wings but manageable) then yellow (possible wing and tailspin stalls) then red (wing stalls likely regardless of flap settings etc) as progressively more ice builds up. Also the supporting gauge "logic" attempts to overcome FSX limitations by influencing the way ice accumulates on the aircraft in what I think is a rather clever manner.

 

As vololiberista mentioned earlier, the download contains an excellent text file that describes FSX icing in general and explains the logic behind this gauge.

 

 

For the test I used the same weather described in post #18 of this thread and had to really work hard to control the aircraft as I held it in the cloud ice conditions through to the RED warning.

 

 

I'd post a screen capture showing the gauge but this forum does not appear to support image uploads.

 

 

Bruce

..can the "Ice Gauge" be setup as popup window ?

if the answer is no, did anyone that set it up on the panel post the location ?

 

Tnx

 

Yair