Excessive Icing effect

Call me crazy, but I wonder if they fixed something server-side on ice. I took off from KORD through icing and as per usual, the A320 was covered in ice. Prior to today, the ice always stays there until I descend somewhere where the outside air temp is high enough for it to eventually disappear.

I’m still at FL320 over the Rockies en route to KSFO, and I just popped outside and the ice was gone!
Outside air temp is -1C. Has anyone else noted anything different regarding icing this afternoon?

EDIT: Probably wishful thinking. I’ve been watching and the TAT is hovering around 0, so maybe it just got warm enough long enough at altitude…

No…I’ve noticed some pretty consistent changes myself and they certainly seem a step in the right direction. I dont think you are crazy.

EDIT: Now im also beginning to wonder if its wishful thinking…the 787 only ices up to 16.6k lbs of ice now as a top max. And it seems a little bit more ready to shed the ice…but it still seems like ice in every cloud. Some other wierd things too, like the temperatures and behaviors of the thawing…overall the effect on the overall aerodynamics seems reduced. Can anyone else peer confirm these findings?

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There’s no use denying or wishful-thinking it. Icing is just not a top bugfix priority. I don’t know how much they’ve paid these atmospheric experts they keep referring to, but it was definitely too much if they allow A320ies to be covered in sugar coating not four minutes into flight if there are just whims of clouds in non-tropical conditions - basically affecting every flight in Europe these days. If only anti-ice had an effect I wouldn’t care, but the way it is now is just utterly frustrating.
We will be dealing with this nuisance, among others, for a really long time.

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If they actually have ram rise simulated that might explain why. You can approximate the ram rise by the square of (TAS / 100). Can be substantial at high TAS, at cruise on most jets its around 20C.

Slightly positive True Air Temperatures don’t necessarily prevent ice accretion in real life as the local temperature can still be below 0C on aerofoils and engine inlets for example. Depending on the aircraft type, anti-icing is switched on somewhere between TAT 5 to 10 and below.

But I think this goes too far for MSFS to simulate, lets hope it at least takes the TAT into consideration.

Haven’t noticed any changes here- iced right up with all deice systems on in the CJ4. At least it doesn’t affect performance…

Something else interesting is that icing affects the stall warning and angle of attack sensors in MSFS. In real life icing has no effect on those (which is part of the danger). Yes the critical angle of attack is reduced with ice accretion but there is no way for the angle of attack sensor or stall vane to “know” or correct for this… Some more advanced aircraft might apply lower AOA threshold for stallwarning activation when there is ice on the ice detector or automatically whenever de/anti-icing is selected ON by the pilot, but this does not apply for a Cessna, Diamond 62 or TBM with a conventional stall warning system. Maybe again something which Asobo finds will “confuse the gamer”, when stalling out of the air in icing conditions without warning.

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:point_up_2: that’s all true.

I’ve been thinking about the Developer Q&A and his answers for the icing. I think he’s under the mistaken impression that Visual Effects only actually works, so he believes we are only concerned with the visual aspect, when in reality, Visual Effects is inoperative, and the aircraft performance is affected the same regardless of the choice.

I know a Dev moderator was monitoring this thread at some point, and can point this fact out to the devs. If it were visual only, it’s eye candy, which is also important for immersion, but less important than not being able to fly in winter.

(Why do I keep humming the tune “Too Much Time on My Hands”?)

Alot of us do have a little (reads alot) of time on our hands the last year or so. So of course we do what we can to help make this the best platform for many years to come…we are the pioneers…virtual test pilots…except we chase our demons digitally…

Thanks for drawing attention to this, it helps to clarify to the developers they need to address the icing issue in its entirety, and not just the visual aspects. I mean I had mostly clear sky on approach last night into KDLH and sure…there was potential for some icing…but I flew through a tiny misty little cloud that I could see through and boom 12,000 lbs of ice. Im battle worn enough on this now that I went up to 11,000ft, scorched my engines (340kt IAS) and managed to get enough ice off that landing was easier. I digress, just another example for the developers. I fly the 787 pretty much exclusively these days due to on air for those curious.

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Everyone,

Thanks so much for voicing your experiences with icing. With developers there is power in numbers. I have been a very long time FS user (apple II days) and I am so excited about this latest release. I utilize this product for simulation experiences in general aviation. I was a private pilot until a medical issue grounded me. So I try to make my experiences as realistic as possible. With that said, the icing effect is making my experience unusable. It’s winter here in the US and 9 times out of 10, I run into weather that is around freezing and some clouds. Anytime I am close to the clouds, my aircraft will stall out. Very frustrating.

I have turned off icing effects and it does not turn off the icing effects on perform ace. At least on the GA aircraft that I fly, SR-22 and the Bonanza. The SR-22 even has ice protection available and it does nothing to prevent the icing stalls that I have.

I just hope the developers see our comments and realize that for the “simmers” the product is really unusable during the winter months.

My current workaround is to fly in warm weather in lieu of “real weather”. Not very sim like.

Let’s continue to raise the issue with the team and hope they fix the problem.

Thanks !!!

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I you open up in “Developer” mode, you can find a slider for icing! The problem is that you might have to constantly click the slider to zero every few seconds! It is very frustrating. The only other way is fly with a personalized weather setting.

“non-tropical conditions” I’ve seen it ice up 10,000 above Florida even!

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If you open up in “Developer” mode, you can find a slider for icing! You can put it to zero and the aircraft behaves fine! The problem is that you have to click the slider to zero ever few seconds. Very frustrating but it works!

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Thats a terrible workaround

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Yes. The icing is overdone, and too frequent. Just climbing through thick overcast toward altitudes above the cloud layer causes immediate icing in northern latitudes. The affect on a A320 Neo is minimal, but still overdone… and perhaps it is occurring at times it should not.


Here’s a clip of a flight in King Air 350i

I’m in the 208 at the moment, climbing through 12,000ft, -29C, and flying through clouds. I have minimal icing at the edges of Windows, but not much more. I don’t even have de-ice turn on. If I turn it on, and set max flow to windshield, the small amount of ice that is there disappears in a few seconds.

I have tried this in the 172 the windshield would be completely covered.

Does it differ on a per aircraft basis?

It’s very possible…I’ve been flying the 787 almost exclusively and find the icing unbelievable. Something HAS changed though, because before I used to accumulate even MORE ice, but now it seems to cap at 16,600lbs. For example, I’ve heard the 747 doesn’t seem to have the same issues…be interesting to see some further commentary on this aspect.

In the 172 it picks up ice incredibly quickly. Like a few seconds of brushing a cloud, and half the windshield will be covered.

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For my opinion is the icing effect also way to fast. lesser then 1 minute at Ground at -11 degrees my Windshield from the A320NX is frozed and fully of ice

The Caravan has no way to combat icing. All of the de-icing and heat controls are INOP. Not exactly a simulation to fall out of the sky every time you fly through a cloud.