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I have had TKS on my Mooney Rocket
since 2001, and have flown with it on two different Bonanzas for our mercy
flight organization over the last 10 years. It clearly works better if
wetted out before hitting icing conditions than when turning it on after
encountering it. It will shed the ice then as well, but does if a lot
slower, and in moderate icing will get a bit hairy if activated late. When
used properly, it works better than boots IMHO.
Both my Rocket and the first Bonanza
were non-certified icing systems. When our organization was upgrading to a
turbonormalized Bonanza, several "professional" pilots insisted we get the a
certified TKS system, which required finding another (newer) airframe,
having the TKS installed before the Tornado Alley upgrade (or TKS would not
certify it), and meant we had to buy a high TBO Bonanza.
Interestingly, the only system to ever fail on me in serious icing was the
certified one.
I had considered the system for my
propjet, and have already installed a 4 gallon tank to at least install the
spray tubes on the prop, which will keep the engine inlets clean, the prop
clean, the fuselage and part of the tail clean from the spray disc you will fly
through. I know of no way to get wing and tail panels now, as TKS no
longer supports these for the Lancair. Anyone know differently or know of
a set sitting somewhere? Not sure I want the speed penalty, but flying
around the Great Lakes in the winter will be fun without full
deice.
Tom Sullivan
U.P. of Michigan
For those
that have either TKS or thermawing on their airplanes have you ever been in
anything more than trace or light icing? If so how did the system and the
airplane perform?
The key with boots or any system that cycles if you're
not able to regain some of the airspeed loss that occurred before the boots
cycled it's time to go down.
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