Yesterday, I was flying the Flight1 C172 and the outside air temp gauge was indicating -1C -- nothing untoward was happening but I turned on pitot heating anyway - can't say that I noticed anything happening with the a/c or the panel.Barry

Believe me, if you've ever seen your airspeed indicator go to zero while tooling along in frigid air, you'll find out quickly whether pitot heat works!Yes, they work. -1 C may not be quite enough to freeze things up. I've been out of the flight sim game for a while, and haven't flown in any conditions since resuming which would call for carb or pitot heat, but I certainly recall them working in the past.Basil

Hi Barry,The OAT isn't the only thing that will ice up the pitot tube. You usually require visible moisture and icing conditions. I've flown into icing conditions without pitot heat on and you do get pitot icing which results in the airspeed indicating zero or close to it.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

Hi PIC ! I would tell you to ask if they work in the PLANEyou are using, not if they work in FS2002 or 2004. It is not FS200# dependant, but PLANE dependant... Blue skies.

Yes, they do work, and generally speaking is not plane dependant unless we are talking about carburetor vs. fuel injection, but as stated above moisture is necessary as in real life. Freezing temps do not automatically mean ice. In addition, when it comes to carb ice, you can get that when OAT is above freezing (I'll leave you to do the research as to why).I could fly all day at -10 and never have an ice problem, but could find I pick up carb ice when in visible moisture and the temperature is +5 or more!Fuel injected aircraft, obviously are immune from carb ice, but can suffer from induction ice.Pitot and structural icing can occur on any aircraft.Regards,http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpg

Well I'll answer the question about carb icing above an OAT of 0 degrees C:As air enters the throat of the carb, gets compressed, and suddenly expands the temp drops. Moisture kinda gets squeezed around the nozzle and the temp after dropping can be at freezing or below so said moisture at the nozzle output freezes. As I recall from an article in Computer Pilot there is also a chance that ice can build in the carb inlet gate as well.As far as pitot freezing goes, I know for sure it is modeled as I have experienced it. It does not take too much humidity for this to occur such as when passing through cloud structures even if the moisture is not very dense.If you are on auto-throttle and the pitot freezes as noted the IAS indication will drop and the A/T will feed more power to the engines to compensate and you might end up in an overspeed condition. A look at the ground speed indicated in a GPS will confirm that.Generally if the OAT is +10C or below on goes the PH.As far as carb icing, it is not quite as subject to freezing depending on its mounting in the engine compartment. I recall switching from a Cessna 152 Continental engine where carb heat was always applied on descent even with the lack of visible moisture in often quite high OAT as part of the landing procedure, to a Piper PA28-140 Lycoming engine where it was only required when dense moisture was present. In a fixed pitch prop you can hear the rpm drop as carb ice builds in FS 8 and 9.