Claret,
I most humbly apologise for not mentioning every specific aircraft type, nor every operational scenario however I was trying give an opinion without excessively pontificating.
Certainly when you line up in your McNorthrop Grummen Douglas you'll turn on a host of anti-ice protection.
The topic is Pitot/Static heat and is representive of a real conundrum at the GA end of the spectrum. I've seen quite a few pilots turn on pitot/static heat in an un-pressurised aircraft as a matter of routine and oblivious to the fact that they were in the tropics on a stinking ISA +50 day.
Quite a few pilots could be forgiven for thinking that pitot heat is there for rain/ cloud protection. Why else would light aircraft manufacturers put pitot/static heat in an aircraft that has no other anti-ice device? (eg Qiute a few singles and light twins).
My opinion is that in a nill icing cond aircraft, the pitot/ static heat is there to provide acurate ASI Whilst negotiating out of an inadvertant icing situation. em tasol
Last edited by psycho joe; 26th April 2005 at 02:53.