Ice ice ice, and more ice.
I've been looking into thermawing, which is certfied on the Columbia/Cessna series 300, 350, and 400 that evolved from the ES. According to someone from Kelly Aerospace, which developed the original system, there are roughly 100 Columbia/Cessna series airplanes out there with the certified systems. I understand there were growing pains with the early systems and some AD was issued, but the system was improved. I understand from a handful of folks that have spoken about it that it works as advertised. It's not that complicated!
Problem: Kelly Aerospace is getting out of/has gotten out of providing new systems. They say they are supporting the existing fleet, but their business is now mostly air conditioning. They told me that they are now out of controllers and that it is a minimum of 6 months to get more of them. That's into next winter as this winter ends!. The fact that it takes 6 months to get controllers for this system is all the information one needs to draw conclusions about the economic motivation of vendors to push the system -- they simply are not doing it, likely because there is not enough money in it to make it worthwhile.
This system is not that complicated. The heating elements are simple and just get glued to the leading edges. Early issues were with the alternator, but the install with the belted alternator up front should now be as reliable as any similar alternator arrangement. The controller? It is not complicated electronics -- its just that no one seems to have a financial incentive to light a fire under someone to identify and assemble new controllers on an ongoing basis so that controllers area available on an ongoing basis. Why is this not happening? The experimental market is thin; the Columbia/Cessna 300-400 are no longer made and thus is thin; and certification costs 85 bazillion $$#%^@#$$$! If it were certified for Cirrus, which was being attempted at one point according to the press, this thing would be widely available. But there must have been a cost/demand calculus made given that TKS was already Cirrus certified.
All of this is incredibly frustrating to me because there have been way too many occasions where I could have gone legally (circumnavigating the ice was **possible** according to the forecast) but did not go because the margins were too close for my risk tolerance.
I just cannot accept that we can't fix this. This system just is not that complicated, not so complicated that folks should be fumbling all over in ways that prevent us from collectively solving this problem. (Please fire away if you think that's naive. Maybe it is. Let's discuss.)
What I am looking for in this thread is an expression of interest in putting our resources together to solve this problem. There exists a system that was certified; it works; it does not rely on "sophisticated" components; and thus it SHOULD be used by those of us who would benefit from it. How many are interested? The only thing that needs to differ from the certified system for other Lancairs is heaters for the wings, and I know those heaters exist for the IV, the ES, and maybe for others? That isn't the barrier, as those parts do not appear to be that complicated to make. If we had enough interest, we should be able to get Kelly to make them. And what about Vans airforce? Why isn't that happening? Why While most of them are not CC machines like Lancairs, the RV 10s are. Isn't there a market for de-ice for those?
Sorry for the length, but given that ice has come up every time (well 80% of the time) I've tried to fly since mid December, and I'm honestly wondering whether I should sell my ES and buy back my Mooney, I feel like we should put our heads together and try to solve this problem, because these planes have many huge advantages over the Mooney!
Happy and safe flying,
Dan
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