Author Topic: No more deicing?  (Read 2469 times)

draci

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No more deicing?
« on: January 08, 2018, 11:20:23 pm »
I've always loved the realism brought to the simulation when GSX was decing the aircraft in winter time but since I've updated to the latest Add-on Manager a few days ago I don't get the decing dialog anymore after the pushback request although the deice.pye file is still there in the GSX folder. Today starting from Bishkek Manas Airport  (lately changed ICAO to UCFM) with -5 degrees Celcius and a dewpoint of -7 in heavy snow, pretty perfect icing conditions in my opinion and FSCaptain confirming that my PMDG747 has accumulated a lot of ice during the turnover but no decing dialog fro m GSX!  The same thing already has happened in Zurich (LSZH) a few days ago when temperatures and dewpoint were well below freezing as well. As far as I know the trigger for the decing call has changed recently "now taking in account the dewpoint instead of simply triggering decing when temperatures  are falling below 4 degrees" which sounds rather cryptic and imprecise to me. So could anybody please confirm that either my suspicion is right that something is wrong with my deicers or at least give the exact conditions which trigger the decing process, any help appreciated, thanks. I've already reinstalled everything but unfortunately to no avail.

Best regards
draci
« Last Edit: January 08, 2018, 11:22:29 pm by draci »

virtuali

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Re: No more deicing?
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2018, 02:03:10 pm »
l As far as I know the trigger for the decing call has changed recently "now taking in account the dewpoint instead of simply triggering decing when temperatures  are falling below 4 degrees" which sounds rather cryptic and imprecise to me.

That sentence it's neither cryptic nor imprecise (it couldn't be "imprecise", since it describes how GSX *used* to work before, which we surely should know about...) and it simply means that:

- With the OLD versions, deicing was triggered ONLY when the outside temperature was 4 degrees or lower, no other conditions.

- With the NEW version, deicing now realistically takes into account the dew point as well, not just the temperature.

The new version allows for deicing if the external temp is lower than 8 C° and if ANY of these it's true:

- Dew point is within 2 C° of the external temp or higher (super saturation)

OR

- it's snowing

This means, the new version should detect deicing more frequently than before, since it will start to detect icing even with an higher temperature compared to before, and it will always consider possible icing conditions if it's snowing.

In your case, your temperature WAS within 2°C of the Dew point and it WAS snowing so, both condition would apply (even if only one was required to trigger deicing) so, it's simply not possible that GSX wouldn't offer deicing.

Of course, GSX checks for the outside temperature and dew point using the most official and standard way possible, which is using Simconnect calls to the Metar. Since the Metar is called by supplying the ICAO, your reference to this airport having changed the ICAO, maybe this confused the simulator weather engine, depending how the ICAO has changed.

Quote
The same thing already has happened in Zurich (LSZH) a few days ago when temperatures and dewpoint were well below freezing as well.

Please indicate the precise values of both temperature and dew point and if it was snowing.

Roland

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Re: No more deicing?
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2018, 02:04:50 pm »
Hi, I made today a flight from Resolute Bay (CYRB) to Thule Airforce Base (BGTL) and was not triggered for De-Icing although the temperature was way below zero with minus 28° Celsius and dewpoint with minus 32° Celsius. Instead I was asked if I like to start the engines during push back. Obviously there might be something wrong with the trigger settings. Just for your kind information.

Regards Roland

sticky1202

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Re: No more deicing?
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2018, 02:51:32 pm »
From Virtualis' statement above..."The new version allows for deicing if the external temp is lower than 8 C° and if ANY of these it's true:

- Dew point is within 2 C° of the external temp or higher (super saturation) or it's snowing"

Your flight did not meet this criteria.

Jim

virtuali

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Re: No more deicing?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2018, 11:45:48 am »
We might accept some suggestions here, since while the above was clearly correct, according to the GSX method of triggering the icing, maybe we might improve it in a way that, when the temperature is very low, we might use an higher than 2 degrees differential of temperature and dew point.

The idea should be detecting icing without triggering false alarms in cold and dry weather.