[REPORTED] INLET ICE Warning message

Today in mission I created, I sat up the weather to "winter clouds & wind" preset and the temperature was 14°C. I took off from the carrier cold and dark.

While in flight and cruising at 15000ft and 350kn, I got a Master Warning light with a message "INLET ICE".

Immediately, I switched Engine Anti Ice to ON, and after few moments the message cleared.

But, after a while the same warning message came on and I checked Engine Anti Ice and it was ON?

I continued flying at the same altitude and speed. But the warning message keep coming on and off for about 2 to 4 minutes cycle.

Is Engine Anti Ice the correct switch to switch it ON? or there is another switch?

When I lowered my altitude to less than 5000ft the warning message disappeared and did not show up again.

Explanation of NATOPS

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3560130

Tests are in this post

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3560450

Further Explanations (With Photos & Diagrams):

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3563889&postcount=176

Yes I had the same problem myself today, similar altitude and airspeed. But this was summer in the Persian Gulf. Bug maybe..

Had this as well, thought it was due to my power dive though. Went away later, but I didn't track it, just noticed it was gone later. Didn't even engage the anti ice, instead I was close to dropping my speed anyway when I saw it.

PG map, +28°C set in ME.

I'm getting it in Nevada with 20+ C temps at around 8,000 feet with no visible moisture or significant weather.

Never seen it before this patch.

I can report the same issue. I haven’t seen the “INLET ICE” warning yet until today and have flown the Hornet in the same weather conditions every time (Summer, Clear, No Wind). Today, I was flying in NTTR and climbing to FL200 but I don’t recall at what altitude or airspeed I got the warning at. I turned on Engine Anti Ice as well with the warning being extinguished after a minute or so.

You gents need to read the patch notes:

"Engine Anti-Ice system, doesn't cause caution/advisories - fixed."

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200724&page=2

Agreed KOLM.

When I got the advisory I engaged anti-icing, the advisory went away after a few minutes or so, but then came back. Not sure if this is normal behavior, I doubt it is.

Seems the latest update brought more issues than it solved...

Inlet ice detectors have nothing to do with the anti-icing of the motor on most airplanes, I would be willing to bet the hornet is the same. The sensing probe is in the inlet, not on the engine nose cone where the heater is. The only purpose of the inlet ice caution is to tell you an icing condition exists...either a yes or a no. Engine heat being on or off will not have an effect on probe sensing.

Sounds 100% normal...

For the record...you guys sound just like a lot of fighter pilots thinking something must be broken. :)

Inlet ice detectors have nothing to do with the anti-icing of the motor on most airplanes, I would be willing to bet the hornet is the same. The sensing probe is in the inlet, not on the engine nose cone where the heater is. The only purpose of the inlet ice caution is to tell you an icing condition exists...either a yes or a no. Engine heat being on or off will not have an effect on probe sensing.

 

Sounds 100% normal...

 

For the record...you guys sound just like a lot of fighter pilots thinking something must be broken. :)

Sent from my H8266 using Tapatalk

What does engine heat heat then? And by what mean?

 

And what is engine nose cone?

Every Turbine Engine has a Nosecone and in this cone there are built in heater pipes/wires to heat up the cone,blades and the air passing by to prevent an icing condition within the engine or on the blades. In case of the Hornet, you can't actually see the cone but it's there. Now the Icing Sensor is somewhere at/in the air inlet. That sensor itself isn't heated.

So when Icing occurs, you flip the Engine Anti-Ice to on but that won't affect the Icing Advisory.

Okay. From NATOPS. There are two corrective actions based on Visible/ No Visible ice on LEF.

But, is ice on the LEFS modeled?

The second thing there are actions which require to check INLET TEMP. Is it modeled too?

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I just checked and INLET TEMP is shown in the ENG page first row.

 

It shows strange values IMHO. 10k ft 350kts it shows 40/50°C while OAT is 5°C.

 

I even flew a mission at 35k ft with INLET TEMP at -12°C and there was no INLET ICE warning. Same mission at 35k ft with INLET TEMP at 2°C and I got INLET ICE warning :huh:

 

Something is not right here.

I flew a mission in the middle of summer, taking off from a carrier in PG, no higher than 8,000FT, and constant engine ice. That shouldn't be a thing in those conditions, right?

No, it shouldn't.

It's bugged atm. I had it at 4000 ft, 30+ Celcius. And the warning doesn't go away even when anti ice is turned on. No way ADV should be covered with anti ice warnings when you sorted the issue.

And the warning doesn't go away even when anti ice is turned on. No way ADV should be covered with anti ice warnings when you sorted the issue.

I think what might be bugged is that there can't be icing conditions present when flying through clear skies at 8000 ft on a hot summer day in Nevada, so the caution shouldn't get triggered in the first place, most of the time at least. However, IF icing conditions are indeed present, the caution won't necessarily go away in the real airplane, like he described:

Inlet ice detectors have nothing to do with the anti-icing of the motor on most airplanes, I would be willing to bet the hornet is the same. The sensing probe is in the inlet, not on the engine nose cone where the heater is. The only purpose of the inlet ice caution is to tell you an icing condition exists...either a yes or a no. Engine heat being on or off will not have an effect on probe sensing.

Been flying the same mission now for 2 days, probably about 14 to 15 hours trying to practice air to air refueling. Supper, no wind, 25 deg. At about 4pm today I updated to the latest patch and then flew the mission again. First time I am seeing the warning, so it must have came with the latest patch. Now weather or not it should be doing it is another story.

This one scared the crap out of me, I created a snow storm mission in the Caucus and had to scramble to figure out if all my defrost and stuff was on, but it kept doing it, only experienced it in the snow storm today though, not the quick action missions.

IIRC the icing modelling in DCS has never been right, in that it only takes into account temperature but not humidity (visible moisture). It could be that they've enabled the ice detection system correctly, but the icing modelling is still not right? Thoughts?

Ah OK; apologies, I've missed some of the detail in your post. I've not investigated myself, but this chart might be of help perhaps?

Well, I guess it is both things:

What Flamin Squirrel said would certainly add to the problem: Even if the implementation of the Hornet’s system is or would be correct, you still would get the warning as soon as the temperature (and other factors like speed, AoA, bank, thrust setting...see NATOPS quote above and the parameters you shouldn‘t exceed when icing is detected) is in a range that WOULD permit ice to accrue IF there would be moisture in the air. If it‘s true that moisture isn‘t accounted for in the DCS engine atm, then we necessarily will get nuisance warnings regradless of the particular airframe and whether it has its part of the ice detection programming right or not.

Keep in mind folks, the inlet ice detectors and the engine inlet temp sensors are two completely different sensors and are in different locations. Inlet ice detectors have a resonator that senses ice buildup and is located in the intake. Engine inlet tenp sensors are part of the motors. You can’t just look at engine temp on the engine page as a verification of right or wrong. You need to know the simulated atmospheric temp at the altitude you are flying, trying to use the engine page is not the way to go about it.

It is according to Natops which was posted above.

You are interpreting that incorrectly. You are looking at the corrective action procedures for when an icing condition exists, not whether or not an actual icing condition exists or whether the inlet ice detector is workig correctly. Engine inlet temp is not an indicator of the atmospheric conditions and it’s not part of the ice detectuon system that is located further up the inlet, it’s a measurement taken at the engine itself which is subject to heating from friction as it procedes down the inlet.

It is actually subject to OAT, as everything is.

Correct, but seeing inlet ice cautions and referring to the engine inlet temp as a validator is not the correct way to test. Two different sets of sensors in two different places.

Yes you are right about that, but it was already pointed out and understood I think.

 

The issue at hand is ice warning in hot conditions and no warning in cold conditions. For me at least, thats not right.

Without knowing what atmosphere is being simulated, hard to confirm whether it’s a bug or not. We can set ground temp/weather but I personally don’t know of a way to set or be able to know what the temp at altitude is. Knowing ground temp is not really going to tell you much in reality