Well a few more hours down in the FSX logbook and I still can't get the airplane to ice up. With many thick layers of cumulus clouds and severe icing within the clouds there is no way to get airframe ice. I've tried to decend and ascend through the clouds with no avail. are there any settings I am missing, or is FSX going to continue adding ice protection switches that don't do anything.

What was the outside air temperature in the clouds?

It could be the latent heat of the airframe in a tropical environment. Given that you can save your flight so as to extend your flight time, how long have your flights been?Mike.

>What was the outside air temperature in the clouds?Outside temp in the cloud was 1* C a prime condition with a cold soaked airplane from higher altitudes.

>It could be the latent heat of the airframe in a tropical>environment. Given that you can save your flight so as to>extend your flight time, how long have your flights been?>>Mike.I don't think that the simulator knows if it is a tropical setting when I put it to overcast cumulus with severe icing and a surface temp of 2* C. With these settings and severe icing which is summarized as a condition where de icing or anti icing measures are not able to prevent the build up or shedding of ice. I haven't thought about flying since I am always suprised that 20 or 30 minutes have passed so quickly haha!

So with everyone concerned about realism and we still don't have icing modeled. On of the leading causes of mishaps and a place where propper planning has to be figured before flight.

Yes-one of the biggest on my list of improvements too. I suspect it is quite complex to do with any kind of accuracy-maybe the next version.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

The problems I think that they are having is the visual representation of the ice because correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the sim knows where the wings are besides contact points. There are so many varibles with radii of the leading edges and air stagnation and developing horn ice. The addition of new pneumatic, electrically heated elements, glycol weeping wings, and bleed air systems which all affect the aircraft differently. The difference between using anti-ice and de-ice systems. Also the occurance of clear ice in cumulus clouds or rime ice in stratus clouds or when supercooled water is present.With that long list I guess I kinda answered my question of why airframe icing isn't included haha.

Yeah-not to mention rime vs. clear, tail stalls and all that other good stuff. Hopefully eventually though....fingers crossed.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Structural ice is indeed simulated in MSFS. At least it was up to fs2004. There are no visual clues, but it is there and it is taken care of when your aircraft is anti-ice / de-ice equiped.The easiest way to "view" it is by using a program like AFSD, wich reads most of the internal variables. I don't know how it'l work with FSX, but you could try...Grab it here:http://perso.orange.fr/hsors/FS_Soft/afsd.htmlLook at the weight increase as ice accumulates. There is actually an entry for ice weight. You also have to deal with ice severity parameters if you're using fs2004 and FSUIPC. I no longer have MSFS installed, but I somehow recall that FSUIPC will, by default, reduce to minima, or even nill the icing effects. Check it please if you use it.As I told, I didn't yet test AFSD with FSX.

You have to ask yourself this question in regards to adding realism to FSX: Will this feature entice more "gamers" to purchase FSX? Realistic icing? No. Thats why its not in FSX, and probably won't ever be in FS.

Then what of the inclusion of all worldwide instrument approaches in fs9, the g1000 in fsx, and many other new features that have not/will not be readily apparent to "gamers"?If you read p-12C's blog -here are some pertinent quotes."The reality is that the gamer market is not our primary focus and isn't even our second or third focus.""Many of these potential users think FS is too complex and intimidating, and frankly it always has been just that"I think the idea of FS becoming more "gamelike" is not true at all.....though it seems some determined to believe so. Granted there will be some new features that will have appeal to less serious simmers-these same features (such as missions) will become incredibly powerful in the hands of the serious user .To jcomm above-I think the request is for visual indications of icing as the next step towards reality...the icing is for sure already there in fs9 though very primitive-we all have our wish list of improvements . :-) Since I spend about 2/3 of the year where I live dealing with icing conditions-and recently have a plane with boots, I can visualize all kinds of sim fun!

The only way "visible" ice would be possible is during modeling of the aircraft, and then set appropriate variables to have it appear based on conditions - quite complex conditions at that. It would be a lot of effort to accomplish this effect globally to each aircraft, so I wouldn't count on seeing this. Perhaps there would be something to affect the flying characteristics, but that too would be troublesome to code for each individual aircraft. Regards,Owen

They could of course make a start like some of the great 3rd party aircraft developed for fs2004 (Bill Lyons aircraft if I remember correctly) that had the windshield ice over tranlucently. Maybe a little shaking from an iced up prop could be done-and more effects both aerodynamically and upon application of deicing boots/systems. I agree though-showing ice on the wing would be very difficult-I'd still like to see it tried-even if only on 1 particular deicing equiped aircraft !http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

The Flight1 ATR (which is probably one of the most technically sophisticated and detailed add-ons for the FS series) models visible ice on its icing evidence probe...That said, I would like to see more aircraft developers models visible icing on the aircraft where possible... it's one area that really has really not got the attention it deserves...Bryan