Does pilot heat deice the airframe and windshield? Doesn’t seem to work? Or am I missing something? Thanks!
Pitot heat de-ices the pitot, which is the tube that measures pressure ti give you the airspeed reading. It has no connection to windshield or airframe icing in general. Hope that helps.
No, Pitot heating only heats the “pitot”, which provides the ram air for the airspeed indicator (and associated instruments in some cases). The 172 is NOT configured for flight into known icing conditions. And if you inadvertently fly into icing, you need to find better conditions as fast as you can!!
Regards
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You know your pitot is clogged with ice when your airspeed goes to zero. But by the time that happens, you’ll probably notice ice on the glass anyway. If there’s any doubt that there may or may not be ice, turn on the pitot heat. If you start icing, get lower. If you can’t get low enough, look for a place to land!
Oh yes … I just started with my Cessna from Aspen KASE with destination Gunnison KGUC when my rig iced during crossing the mountains … I was not able anymore to hold my designated altitude and crashed into the Gunnison River briefly before I arrived at the Gunnison–Crested Butte Regional Airport 
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This is precisely the kind of stuff that people think there are bugs with systems that are actually working as they should. User errors. No offense to OP, but there are A LOT of these happening.
Yes but there is also a lot that is wrong.
In any case you can use the Cabin heat to try and deice the windows. That worked for me.
See my thread