Too bad we cant simulate this in our sims :)

[MLeavy737]

Woke up to snow this morning heading from Newark to SanFrancisco.  Into the De-Ice pad we go.  Would be cool to have something like this in FlightSim! Have a truck driving around spraying a/c.

In one way it probably wouldnt be too difficult.  On my checkride this year in the new 800 sim it was all in winter ops. When we pulled into the deice pad and coordinated de-icing with ground crew (Instructor) He pressed a button and you actually heard the deicing going on. Almost sounds like your in a carwash inside the car. Pretty cool and effective and didnt take any fancy graphics to add that extra realism.

Mike Leavy

[blueskydriver]

Mike,

Airport Enhancement Services (AES) for FSX (and FS9) has this very option included. The thing is, even though it works with a lot of Airport Add-ons, not every Airport is supported. Plus, you have to purchase the Airport-On in addition to AES.

If you go to AES' site, you'll see all available airports that will work...

BSD

[MLeavy737]

Mike,

Airport Enhancement Services (AES) for FSX (and FS9) has this very option included. The thing is, even though it works with a lot of Airport Add-ons, not every Airport is supported. Plus, you have to purchase the Airport-On in addition to AES.

If you go to AES' site, you'll see all available airports that will work...

BSD

Ohh cool! I should have known better. I guess im out of the loop a little Looks like a cool program. You mention you can only de-ice at certain airports and only if you have the addon. Dont see why something like this couldnt just be made as a sound module or addon in some way. Then you could just de-ice wherever you want.  You dont really see the trucks anyhow when getting de-iced unless press your head to the window like i did with my iPhone in that picture.  Just having the swishing sound and simulated frequency chatter would be fun.

Heres all you need.. about 4 min of swishing sound (to be realistic). When complete, a voice comes on the radio and says something like this. "  OK (airline flt number).. deicing complete, start time 0830, end time 0834.  50-50 mix TYPE I, 100% TYPE 4. Employee number (whatever). Flash your lights when ready to taxi, contact ground control, have a nice day. "

complete your de-icing checklist and reconfigure, head out on your way. dont forget to watch your holdover times!

Thats all, dont need the fancy graphics

Mike Leavy

[blueskydriver]

Mike,

I think someone could easily make this, but there a few needed things to complete it:

1. The trigger. This would be a button, key, even voice command (if using voice reg.), but something would have to start this sequence. I know AES uses a menu and key press.

Surely, this could be handled like FSCrew2010 does with voice. It looks for a certain phrase to be stated and responds accordingly. So, lets say I use this phrase. "Cockpit to Ground, please contact (insert name-Mike who do you ask for this anyway?) for De-Icing" At which point this starts the sequence, to end the sequence it goes as Mike stated: a voice comes on the radio and says something like this. "  OK (airline flt number).. deicing complete, start time 0830, end time 0834.  50-50 mix TYPE I, 100% TYPE 4. Employee number (whatever). Flash your lights when ready to taxi, contact ground control, have a nice day. "  But, you must say "thanks for the service" as that little phrase would be the end sequence trigger.


2. Audio recordings can be made and time delays can be used as to when different audio would play, but the Airline Flt number would be an issue because there would be so many; unless, the voice reg. program read the flight number from FSX (FS9), it would sound computerized for that part, but doable.

3. The swishing sound(s) would need to be recorded and at least get some that are different in length, and from inside the cockpit and out (as both would be different)

4. This would be the big one, but is it correct that De-Ice is applied when the temp is at +4C. or lower, so when you talk about the mixtures, they would be different based on the temperatures outside. So, the colder and likelyhood of more ice, the changes in mixtures. Therefore, there would be a need for a temp. range table that decides on what audio (based on mixtures) is played, and then somehow looks at the temp within FSX (FS9) to choose which one to play. I think FSUIPC could be used for most of this to read data from the sim program, so it shouldn't be that hard.

Is there anything else you can think of to include?

BSD