I've been flying de-iced Pumas in icing conditions quite regularly for the past five years. There are two heavier generators, not a third, but there is additional AC buses (although I was told by my instructor (Aberdeen) that there is a third generator on the initial type course, but I highly doubt such a thing exists), and there is a slight increase in fuel consumption with the kit on. I've never seen nor heard of the kick mentioned earlier when encountering ice or putting the kit on, it's quite seamless. Operations dictate turning the kit on before flying into icing conidtions, ie punching into cloud below zero, but if you should encounter ice without the kit on, if you don't notice it on the wipers/mirrors first, you'll see a slight increase in torque, maybe 4% or so, and turning the kit on has the torque dropping to normal in seconds. I've seem some pretty heavy ice accumulation but the kit works flawlessly and I have never needed to go to the severe function, which reduces the time between heating blade elements for heavy conditions. We often launch in heavy snow/solid IMC/winter/below freezing and fly a four hour sortie in the clag with the kit going the entire time, and the aircraft doesn't appear to mind at all. It works very well, and everyone I know that flies in icing condition regulary develops alot of faith in the sytem. Coming off of the S61, everyone was quite wary at the start, venturing into conditions tentively with a solid out, but the kit just works. But being pilots, we still like to have options/outs in our back pockets.