What is the deal with icing in FS2004?

[Guest danowat]

Hi,OK, heres the deal, even though I have the pitot heat on, at random occasions, when flying in icing conditions, I will still get the IAS guage dropping to zero indicating icing?.Am I the only one who gets this?, can be bloody annoying ;)Dan.

[SAS263 1]

Nope, you

[Guest]

Sometimes for an instant when ActiveSky is in the process of updating the weather. Seems that it doesn't always do so as unintrusively as it would like to do.But in general, no.

[Guest danowat]

I had it last night approaching EGKK , its pretty cold in the UK of late, and it was raining slightly, at about 2000ft entering a cloud, the icing happened and lost the ASI, even though I had the pitot heat on, it cleared itself after about 10 seconds, but those 10 secs lasted a lifetime ;).I use AS2004 so maybe that is contributing to it?Dan.

[mnmon 0]

I have this also, and it does seem to happen more after I started using AS. Maybe move this thread over to the AS forum?? Mike

[Mats_J 2]

Dan et alAs far as I recall there are several levels of icing in FS9. Where the highest level being 5 (or 4). With this level of icing the pitot heat doesn't help. There is a way to prevent this however. If you have a registered version of FSUIPC you can limit the highest level of icing FS9 will model.Hope it helps,

[ronzie 21]

. . . and FSUIPC is used by AS2004.5 so the icing limits should be settable. I never noticed a limit other than icing in clouds on or off but I'll recheck the docks.I would also imagine depending on the pitot tube design that indeed there could be momentary clogging if a small ice chunk is encountered (ice pellet) as is occasionally suspended in cloud structures. I wonder if autothrottles having damping to accommodate such momentary disturnances based on sudden changes.

[quantumleap 1]

> I have this also, and it does seem to happen more after I>started using AS.I'd suspect that the reason people see this happening more often when using ActiveSky is simply related to the fact you are now flying with real weather, with real risk of icing, etc., rather than MSFS's defaults. In other words, when flying in icing condusive sub-zero temperatures in visible moisture modelled by ActiveSky I'd expect it to happen.Saying that, I have seen in MSFS that if you have pitot heat on before you are subjected to icing conditions it won't notice that you have it on already. Simply recycling pitot heat off then on again makes MSFS notice it.

[oskrypuch 36]

I have noticed this myself a lot, in a variety of planes, including the default ones. It seems to have something to do with Active Sky, it may not, but I have never seen it happen without AS running, and it seems that anyone that reports this is running AS. It may well be that AS is better at creating the very "real" weather that causes the problem with the FS weather engine.I also wrote a gauge to specifically tell me if pitot heat was on, and what the ambient temp was, so I'm sure of the following ...Necessary conditions:*NOTE* pitot heat is on, and confirmed on with my gauge and FSLookup, since engine start.1) Running ActiveSky2) Icing conditions, ambient temp -15 to +43) Often in a climb, generally after you pass the -10 temp ambient indication ...The IAS goes to zero -- the Mach indicator remains correct, but you are likely in the 10k to FL200 range (or lower in the north) and still using IAS.Some have suggested disabling all icing in AS, this does not help.Some have suggested on the AS forum that switching to outside view temporarily clears the situation -- it does not for me.Pitot heat is confirmed as on, and was turned on at engine start, turning it off/on with shft-H or the panel again has no further effect.After about a minute the situation clears, so if you happen on something that you think clears the situation, hard to prove that it was helpful -- as this clears generally on its own fairly quickly.You have to turn off A/T if you have it on, and use your manual throttle guided by the GS. If you don't have it on the panel, then use the Shft-Z display to show it along the top.It seems that the only way to block this from happening is to not run Active Sky, which is unthinkable. This seems to be the most cogent advice that I have found on this:> This is a common problem in FS with a number of add-ons.>> If you experience severe (level 5) icing in MSFS, it will freeze your pitot tube, resulting in a zero-airspeed excursion, regardless of pitot heat setting. The PSS panel does, in fact, activate the pitot heat internal to FS.>> In FSUIPC, you should deselect random icing in clouds, restrict max icing to level 3, and select the "allow FSUIPC to interfere with FS own weather" options. That has worked well for me.>> Regards>> Bob Scott> ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300> Washington, DCI use these settings now and it had seemed to have blocked this from happening, but to my disappointment I had one instance of this occuring, even with these settings. But, it is rare now.* Orest-~~~~~~~~~Orest SkrypuchUAL1445 ORDFOCYFD - Canada

[Guest danowat]

Cheers guys, at least its not just me, I will look at the icing levels in FSUIPC.Dan.

[JSkorna 137]

Orest,Did you ever determine the icing level set by using the Set Weather Minimums button in FSUIPC?To All,Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences without finger pointing and blame. Some of us got off on the wrong foot a few weeks ago regarding this issue, but I can now see some of other experiences and possible solutions that others have. This gives us a better understanding of the problem!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Dan,This happened to me yesterday, but in very different conditions. I was flying in the Caribbean, out of Saba, OAT about 26 C., no icing possible, I believe, especially as I did not go above 2500 ft. AGL.For some strange reason, I had turned on the pitot heat in the RealAir Cessna - usually, I never bother -, and after a while, no more IAS. As I have set failures to 0 (after all, there is enough of that in real life), it was not a sim failure.Since I had been cycling through views quite a lot, I put it down to excess texture load that stressed out the sim engine, but your post makes me wonder what really went on.By the way, I do not have Active Sky.Best regards.Luis

[oskrypuch 36]

> Did you ever determine the icing level set by using the Set Weather Minimums button in FSUIPC?Jim,Now that I've had a look at it, I am reluctant to push the minimum defaults button, as it would likely remove a lot of the settings I have carefully put together.I imagine Peter could tell you?IAC, here is some stuff from the FSUIPC docs:Another button here, Minimum weather defaults, is there mainly to help WidevieW users to set up their client PC (not the server) so that WidevieW can copy the weather over correctly without FSUIPC interfering. WidevieW is a system for multiple views of FS over a Network, and is made by Luciano Napolitano.Note for WidevieW usersAppropriate versions of Luciano Napolitano's WidevieW package can make good use of FSUIPC's weather processing facilities in FS2000/2002 by transferring the exact weather from the Server PC to the Clients most efficiently. However, if you have the FSUIPC options set wrongly in the Client FS installations, the similarities WidevieW is striving for may well be lost.In order to see a virtually identical copy of the Server's weather in each Client, set ALL of the FSUIPC weather options off (i.e. unchecked) except for these:Winds: enable transitions if they are enabled in the serverWinds: extend the top layer if it is enabled in the ServerWinds: allow gusts (so that this is controlled in the Server)Winds: shear sharp as defaultedVisibility: disable the surface limitsVisibility: apply white-out fix if enabled in ServerThe Minimum weather defaults button in the About page starts you off getting the correct settings.IcingOn FS2004, where icing can have more effect, there is a facility to limit the maximum icing level that can be set. The number here is the maximum you wish to see-from 0 (no icing) to 4 (no limit: severe icing is accepted). Note that this can only really affect cloud icing set by third party weather programs. It can affect FS's own global weather, but only if the option (in the Technical page) is enabled to allow FSUIPC to interfere with FS weather-and even then, FS's global weather doesn't stay "global" for long. This parameter is defaulted on, with a maximum of 3, so preventing third party weather programs (or FSUIPC's own random facility) generating severe icing levels.* Orest-~~~~~~~~~Orest SkrypuchUAL1445 ORDFOCYFD - Canada