Icing in FSX?

[ryanbatc 13,001]

I'm having a debate with someone on the vatsim forums about icing. He's saying he's able to accumlate ice on the prop of his default planes with the proper conditions. I am not able to get any ice nor any adverse effects of it. From my experience there are no icing effects in FSX, unless visually modeled by the developer such as F1 Mustang, Lotus L39, PMDG JS41 etc etc...What are other people's experiences with ice?

[mgh 89]

This may be helpfulhttp://forum.avsim.net/topic/318999-structural-de-ice/

[ryanbatc 13,001]

So the conclusion was that the aerodynamic properties aren't affected but without carb and pitot heat you'll likely lose engine power and airspeed will read zero? Did I read through it correctly?

[Dutch727 543]

So the conclusion was that the aerodynamic properties aren't affected but without carb and pitot heat you'll likely lose engine power and airspeed will read zero? Did I read through it correctly?

... not quite. Aerodynamic properties of the wing and prop efficiency are definitely affected, but rather slowly. There's a file in the forum here...search for "Ice Gauge" and it'll pop up. A file in there, icing.txt, explains it all. A quote:

Structural icing is modeled in FS2004 and FSX, as is its closely related cousin propeller icing. Not only are the effects of the icing modeled, but tools exist to prevent icing or clear the airframe of the virtual ice that's accumulated there.So (you might ask skeptically) why haven't I ever seen any effects of structural icing even when I fly through moisture-laden clouds with the air temperatures below freezing?The truth is that while icing is simulated the implementation is wimpy. Structural icing does occur; in fact it's occurring anytime the pilot perceives either pitot or carb icing. But there's no visualization of it at all; and due to the conservative implementation the effects are usually so subtle and short-lived that most pilots won't notice icing. Ironically this is especially true if they use "real weather" in their simulation -- which almost all sim pilots dedicated enough to realism to be concerned about icing do as a matter of course. (And I'm talking about third party products here such as Active Sky as well as the built-in real weather option.)

The write-up talks about FS9 but things are almost exactly the same in FSX, except a couple of the obscure AIR file records are no longer needed to make deicing work.If you try, you can set up a situation in FSX where your airplane ices up so badly it won't fly. But you have to try pretty hard...Dutch

[ryanbatc 13,001]

This is probably why I haven't been able to see anything...I fly 99% with real weather. The only other type I use is clear all weather and to test stuff I've been trying the heavy snow, manually editing the ice to severe.I'll check out that gauge thanks!

[Ramasurinen 0]

Hi Ryan. FSX does indeed have airframe icing and it can get pretty nasty! I've found that in general flight, using "real world weather" it almost never occurs, and then only in trace amounts. It seems to occur a bit more often when using Activesky, if the conditions are perfect for it. If you want to force it to see how bad it can get though, you certainly can. Set user defined weather, with a massive overcast layer (very thick altitude wise, say 5000-10000 feet thick), and set severe icing in that layer. Set ambient temperature at the surface to somewhere between 2 and 5 deg C, then go flying in the middle of that cloud layer. You'll find that within a few minutes you'll begin to see a drop off in aircraft performance, ie: more drag and weight, and an ever increasing angle of attack. Stay in it long enough, 10-15 mins, and you may not be able to maintain altitude at all in anything less than a pure fighter. FSX doesn't like to maintain those icing conditions though. It seems to dissipate the further you fly from your start point with that user defined weather, so try some lazy circling in the general area. :)-Mike

[DRani 1]

Search avsim file library for icev10.zip by Charles Owen. It has some great info about icing in fsx and some mods that he has made. It works good!ThanksDavid Ranieri.

[davethewave2 20]

I'm thinking about putting better ice handling into Open Clouds. (http://www.fsopen.co.uk/software/openclouds/)I've had 2 people email me over xmas asking about this so I've done a bit of digging. FSX presents 2 icing variables to the developer: PITOT ICE PCT and STRUCTURAL ICE PCT.If you set severe icing conditions then the pitot freezes within 30 seconds or so and indicated air speed is lost.Structural icing slowly increases from 0 to 100%, it takes about half an hour to get to 100%.Flying in a 737 at 100% had little effect, more thrust was needed but not noticeable to handling.In the cessana I was unable to maintain altitude once icing passed 65%.Once out of icing conditions ice is lost at a slow rate even if the temp is below freezing or parked on the ground at +20!In the 737, activating wing heat removed the icing instantly.In the SDK there is the ability to apply prop heat but I don't think this has any effect as there is no variable for ice on the prop itself.So icing in fsx is not handled particulaly well but I'm still planning to add to open clouds. I can't speak for ASE but I'm guessing they have allready done this.Icing can occur in many conditions but is more likely to occur when the temperature is between 0 and -10 and cloud is dense or contains precipitation.What i can't establish is although icing can occur in these conditions just how likely is it? I mean if I always apply icing to clouds then users will find the effect unrealistic. What I'm thinking of doing is adding a bit of random logic like.If Cloud coverage > 50% then icing chance =20%If Rain then icing chance =50%Would love to hear your views on this particully from real pilots who might be able to help on how likely icing can occur.

[TrafficPilot 121]

I look forward to the new version of Open Clouds! I already have your current version - excellent bit of freeware thank you very much for all the time and effort.I already have ASE but prefer using Open Clouds for quick flights or circuit practice. It produces some very nice weather especially with OVC reported - prefer it to the ASE OVC representation at lower levels.Looking forward to some Open Clouds icing! (never said that in real-life thankfully..).

[davethewave2 20]

Thanks for the feedback TrafficPilot.Aim to have a test version with icing available next week.

[mjrhealth 822]

I just flew the demo switzerland tour mission, in the carenado 172, at about 5000 ft i lost power very quickly, then i finally found the carb heat and turned it on, the OAT wa -10 deg c at 75000 it was around -18. Took a few minutes for the engine to recover once it was iced, had to try and coax it into level flight, no fun in a valley. I already had pitot heater on, just in case.

[Buzz313th 0]

Search avsim file library for icev10.zip by Charles Owen. It has some great info about icing in fsx and some mods that he has made. It works good!ThanksDavid Ranieri.

Thanks for that linkGonna try it outJB