icing -- visual only?

[dcc]

I think the icing effect is a nice addition to MSFS and I've read that many feel the effect is a bit overblown. Today I'm starting to wonder if the "visual only" switch for icing works, or if the icing effect on the flight model is always on.

I have had my icing effect set at "visual only" for some time now, and when I've flown in cold inclement weather, I've chosen planes that have deicing. Today, though, I took the classic C172 up for a spin in cold mostly clear live Wx and midway, at 3000' I must have flown through a bit of cloud or something, as ice began to accumulate. I dropped down to 1800' before it got too bad and thought that would be that. After all, it was just a visual effect and I could still see ok out the windshield. About 5 minutes later the plane -- on autopilot -- stalled out with a high AOA even though the throttle was about 80% power. I ended up putting it down on a country road. The plane had some ice on it and I checked my icing effect was still on "visual only" -- but it sure seemed to behave as though the flight model was dealing with ice. Anyone else encountered this?

I must admit it was an interesting change of pace and fun to test my skills at handling an unknown emergency, but I'm beginning to wonder if I've run into yet another bug in this (under-developed) sim.

- dcc

[Tom Clayton]

I seem to remember some discussion about this on the other board, but I don't remember if there was ever a consensus.

[FlyingsCool]

If you search for Deice with "All" commands available for the keyboard, there are three commands
Toggle Windshield deice, Structural, and Prop. The Key strokes Ctrl + Alt + d, Ctrl + Alt + i, and Ctrl + Alt + P are all available and can be assigned respectively to them.

[PRB]

I was tooling around Missouri yesterday in the Carenado Mooney and had a similar experience. Ice covered everything. My ice setting was "on" not "visual only", but I had all the anti ice buttons I could find in that cockpit turned on on. Wind shield never did clear up, and I had to land in Rolla, on the closed runway because that was the first one I saw, while peeking out the tiny clear space on the window. The Mooney never stalled or even seem to be affected by the ice. External view showed the plane covered in the stuff. I have now assigned "wind shield de ice" to a switch on my throttle quadrant!