So I decided to take a spin in the 208 last night, something I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used since I got the sim. But I ended up running into some icing, and I couldn’t make hide nor hair out of the controls in the plane.
Can anyone offer any insight on what controls do what, exactly?
Thanks,
Kev
I’m not sure how well it’s modeled in the sim, but the three switches to the right of the pitot heat and wing light switches are the de-ice controls. The first switch is pump pressure to deliver fluid to the weeping surfaces. The second switch directs max flow to either the airframe or windscreen as needed. #3 is for the backup pump, and probably does nothing in the sim. If you’re not familiar with a “weeping wing,” it’s the titanium leading edge that has several thousand very small holes laser drilled through the surface. An electric pump delivers de-icing fluid through those panels and the relative wind blows it back across the wings and tail surfaces. I found this video with a decent explanation of how the system functions.
I am familiar with it, but I would have sworn the 208 had boots, not a weeping wing, so that threw me off. Also, where it’s supposed to say “NORM”, my eyes saw “HORN”. I’m not sure if it’s me, or if whomever was charged with creating the texture was high at work that day. You can even see in this photo that it looks like “HORN”.
This came from the video you embedded, and clearly says “NORM”.
I appreciate the help, I think I’ll be better prepared if this happens again. It doesn’t help that I thought the sim was paused, and in actuality it ran on all on it’s own under autopilot for probably a bit more than an hour, so not only did my plane overfly it’s destination, it turned into a flying ice cube on the way. I ended up descending below the freezing level, letting the ice melt off, and then finding an alternate to land at. Turns out it was an Air Force base for whatever country’s Air Force that I was flying in, but for an Air Force base there were a lot of civilian planes, and a very few (like, no) military aircraft.
I think the sim needs to work on what planes it puts where lol…
Kev
I’ve been flying the 208 a lot lately. How well does it handle in icing and do the deicing controls work. Getting close to that time of year where I live.
Dude… I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this before… Since day 1, I always thought it was HORN
I even went as far as googling “HORN in a 208B Anti-Ice”
But If I’m not mistaken, the “Air frame/Windshield” toggle in game, is reversed (I think you flip UP for windshield, DOWN for air frame)
It says HORN. It’s supposed to be “NORM”, but it really does say “HORN”. I even double checked it today by getting in the b1rd, and putting my face as close as it will go. Someone was drinking on the job the day they made that texture. As regards the Airframe/Window selector the picture from the sim and the picture from a real life photo from above are identical. But on the day in question, I needed both at the same time lol. I had flipped over to another app and left my plane flying along on autopilot. When I returned it was an ice cube. Glad it was a 208, otherwise it may have already crashed.
I mean, you never really need both at the same time. If you’re flying through known weather, you’re on instruments, and then there’s really no need to be able to look out the front window. At that point, you just need to keep your airframe clean. Once you drop out of the weather or below freezing level, you can switch it over to windscreen and get your vision back.
The REAL problem with the in-game 208’s “Heat/Anti-Ice” is the lack of being able to control cabin heat. If you can keep it 65-70+ in the cockpit, the glass will usually have a fighting chance. But since the cockpit is basically OAT at the moment, it’s kinda impossible.
I still don’t understand why they decided to make several switches in the 208 INNOP after SU5, one of which was “Cabin Heat”
Cabin heat to remove ice from the windscreen? No way.
Why “No way”?
What’s going to have a better chance of negating ice build up on a windscreen:
It will make zero difference. Maybe defogging on the inside, but that’s it.
20 vs 70deg? Which units???
That’s absolutely not true. Just think of a car warming up in your driveway in the winter. You don’t have defrosters for your side windows, so why would that frost melt?
…Obviously fahrenheit. Why would you think celsius?
Fine, -6 VS 20
You are comparing a car sitting static in a driveway with an aircraft at high altitude in flight? Seriously?
Sorry, but you have no idea what you are talking about.
It does say “HORN” 
And I guess I’m sorry, too, because in this case, I think you are the one who is wrong. He has a valid point when he points out that a 70° F cockpit has a better chance at defrosting/deicing a windscreen than a 20° F cockpit does. Now, having said that, it’s also important that we remember that we’re talking about simulated ice on a simulated windscreen, with a simulated cockpit temp that is really unknown to us. Ergo, the only thing that really matters is not how such things might work in the real world, rather how they have been programed to work in the sim.
Because we cannot feel the simulated cockpit temp, and there is no internal temp gauge we can refer to for help, we really don’t even know what the sim thinks the temp is. If it is 20°, that would not only not melt ice, as it is substantially below the freezing level, it would have a tendency to create and/or sustain it. It’s a much different story when you’re talking about a temp that is well above freezing.
Since I very much doubt Asobo is going to drop by our little thread here to explain the math they used for this specific scenario, we just have to deal with the reality of what we’ve got. And my experience in this case may not be a good one to use, because I so very rarely fly the plane, I don’t even know where the cockpit heat controls are located, well, I didn’t at the time at least, and it seems for whatever reason, they’re currently INOP anyway. But I do think that it’s likely that whatever math is being used, it’s reasonable to assume that he’s right, and that the 70° F cabin might just help.
For all we know, when the heat controls were rendered INOP for whatever the reason may have been, they told the sim to assume the cabin heat was on full blast. Unfortunately, the opposite is at least equally likely so we really just do not know.
In any event, 70° > 20°, and in this case “>” means warmer than.
Sigh, if warm cabin air is enough to melt ice, why are windscreens heated or have heated elements?
Again, there’s no chance of melting ice with cabin heat. It’s that simple.
Yes, I am. Because even though one travels a mile higher, they’re both aluminum bodies with glass windows. Heat transfer through glass doesn’t just magically stop because you’re up in the air or because it’s 30 degrees colder.
If that heat transfer never happened, you’d need electrical elements imbedded in the glass (Think of your rear-window), no matter what altitude you were at.
Because it’s faster.
No. Because it’s impossible to achieve in any other way.
I’ve even experienced ice accumulation on heated windscreens!
Glass windows in an aircraft?
The last time I checked, the airframe and windshield deice switches are flipped in the FS caravan. So set the switch to airframe deice to clear the windshield, and vice versa.
That’s pretty much all I needed to hear to end this conversation
