In a flight this morning I developed a little icing so I descended to a lower altitude right away.  As I did so, I noticed the ice on the windscreen wasn't changing any, so, on a whim I activated the defroster control.  I also activated front cabin heat (might as well be comfortable).  🙂

I really wasn't expecting anything but, lo and behold, the windscreen began to clear,  It appeared to slowly clear in a couple of distinct patterns toward each side of the cockpit.  I recall in other flights where the ice didn't clear much at all.  I don't know whether this effect is modeled in the sim globally or whether it's just this aircraft, but I was impressed!

 

If I'm understanding your question correctly, yes, the de-icing controls are active in the default aircraft. Try maintaining your altitude and switching on the de-ice and you'll see it having the desired effect.

The G36 is not rated for flight into icing conditions and doesn't have deicing, beyond the cabin air controls and the propeller.  My understanding is that cabin air generally won't keep up with exterior ice accumulation in real life.  Generally I haven't seen cabin air do anything in the sim, but I'll give it another try.

That pattern of melting is just how the ice goes away on the G36 as the structural icing % goes down.

Edited January 22, 20215 yr by marsman2020

Yes, the G36 is not rated for flight into known ice conditions and has no deicing.  In this case, when some icing appeared I immediately descended and activated the propeller heating.

A defroster, of course, will not clear icing.  Once out of icing conditions, I was curious as to whether the defroster would help clear the windscreen.  I wasn't sure if the effect was just built in to the sim or a function of the G36.

I have used the defroster in 152's and 172s in RW flying to clear frost from the windscreen - I once made a landing approach with about 8" of viewing area...

26 minutes ago, RandallR said:

Yes, the G36 is not rated for flight into known ice conditions and has no deicing.  In this case, when some icing appeared I immediately descended and activated the propeller heating.

A defroster, of course, will not clear icing.  Once out of icing conditions, I was curious as to whether the defroster would help clear the windscreen.  I wasn't sure if the effect was just built in to the sim or a function of the G36.

I have used the defroster in 152's and 172s in RW flying to clear frost from the windscreen - I once made a landing approach with about 8" of viewing area...

Of course, there are also the cases in which a warm front overtakes cold air, where the correct procedure is to climb into that warmer air mass. That atmospheric configuration can also result in freezing rain (rain drops falling from above freeze on the cold surface of an aircraft at lower  altitude. That can result in rapid accumulation of catastrophic quantities of ice on wings and airframe.

Has anyone seen this phenomenon in MSFS?

The icing in MSFS seems like it's either rapid, or none.  There is no inbetween.  I haven't seen freezing rain though, it usually seems to be associated with flying into any kind of cloud when OAT is <0C.

I've landed the G36 using only the synthetic vision and a 1" square of windshield that you can see through at 100% icing.

LittleNavMap reports the icing % in the aircraft status window which is useful for doing controlled testing of de-icing or defrosting.  I will investigate the cabin heat defrost and report back.

I have seen the icing effect dissipate over time in MSFS in another aircraft - it took a long time.  In this case, I thought it would be fun to try the defroster as I was supposedly out of icing conditions.  I guess the only way to be sure would be to make 2 flights in icing conditions, descend below the cloud or moisture layer and hit the stop-watch...

Yup, exactly!  I've done that when testing some aircraft mods, break out the stopwatch.  With a controlled preset it's very consistent how long it takes the ice to form and melt.

On 1/22/2021 at 10:12 PM, jrw4 said:

Of course, there are also the cases in which a warm front overtakes cold air, where the correct procedure is to climb into that warmer air mass. That atmospheric configuration can also result in freezing rain (rain drops falling from above freeze on the cold surface of an aircraft at lower  altitude. That can result in rapid accumulation of catastrophic quantities of ice on wings and airframe.

Has anyone seen this phenomenon in MSFS?

Yes, I have climbed out of icing to a higher altitude and seen the icing dissapear.

Graham

 

1 hour ago, Moria15 said:

Yes, I have climbed out of icing to a higher altitude and seen the icing dissapear.

Graham

Wow, that's really impressive. I would not have expected that of a desktop simulator.

Since we're talking about de-icing packages, other than the TBM, what other MSFS prop planes have de-ice packages?