I only leave the engine cowls open when on the ground and then close them when it the air. Have you adjusted you engine mixture. Sounds like your pretty high in altitude and your mixture should be set accordingly.

Yeah make sure you lean your mixture as you climb.  If there is a source for alternate air in the 310, use that as well.  In any case, I reckon the 310 is one of those "avoid icing at all costs" type aircraft.

DaveSims wrote on Aug 14^th, 2011 at 2:36pm:


I was climbing through 14,500 when the problem started.

IM pretty sure it wasnt just because of thinner air.. it happened fairly suddenly, as opposed to the smooth transition to thinner air.

Its really worrying what if i was flying through mountains.. I would be SOL

I would also suggest closing your cowl flaps. If they're open they let lots of heat off the engine get blown out. Closing them will help retain heat around the engine. (not sure if FS will recognize that point though.)

You need to put the pitot heat on before icing commences otherwise it is like trying to defrost a freezer whilst it is on using a toy hairdryer

Pitot is for speed but by the sounds of things everything was going wrong. Normally my first thing to check is instruments.
If you're flying the Cessna at altitude you'll need carb heating on (if fitted), cowl flaps shut, lean the mixture and adjust the prop.
Cowl flaps should only be open when taxiing on the ground or coming in for landing. Otherwise the natual air flow around the engine should do the trick.

Rocket_Bird wrote on Aug 18^th, 2011 at 12:31am:


I remember having read something of a treatise appended to an ice gauge I downloaded some time ago. This treatise went on and on about how messed up is the ice simulation under FS. The gist of it was that to simulate ice, FS only increments dynamically the planes weight in flight, instead of having any effect on how the flight surfaces work, which is quite entertaining, if you think to M$ greatest bombast: As Real As It Gets.

To worsen and already bad situation, under FS it's almost impossible to say if and when you are in an icing layer. Sure, using ActiveSky form V6.5 upward you KNOW that it gives you a high probability of icing in clouds (AND, for experience I can say, sometimes even clear air icing, but then, this happens in real life too, so no complaints here)... BUT, you MUST be using this add-on. If you use the haphazardly put together inbuilt online weather system of FS, you can never say.

For sure, if you enter in a icing situation with your plane under FS, differently from real life, you only have your plane struggle to keep speed and altitude and never risk the very probable loss of control of the real counterparts (unless you allow your plane to reach stall conditions... and even then, this is badly simulated in the greatest majority of planes, under FS).

The speediest way to get rid of the excess weight the wretched icing simulation of FS beleaguers us all with, in absence of anti-ice systems, is to lose altitude. FAST. If you use ActiveSky 6.5 or better, stay away from clouds even if outside temperatures do not seem low enough for ice (consider it a trap and treat it accordingly). If you're still flogging yourself raw with the inbuilt weather system... be very aware of your flight and when you start losing speed and struggling to stay afloat, take icing countermeasures.