Nothing at all against Mark and the gang at RDD, but I had the thermawing system DE-modded from my aircraft.  3 main problems- one, it never worked reliably.  I even took the airplane and left it with them for a weekend and it only worked once.  Secondly, even if the system works, it does not protect the air intake (critical for MAP/pressurization) and you cant stay up high even with clean wings.  Third, and most importantly, the starter drive adapter and pulley mounted on the back side of the motor (TSIO 550E) that is used to power the system or the ac compressor (we tried both configurations) would not last long before failing.  In the year and a half the system was on my airplane we went thru 3 starter drive adapters.  Once, on a night flight from Phoenix to St. Louis, the adapter failed and oil started leaking profusely.  I had no cockpit indications.  Luckily, it failed near landing because I only lost about a quart in flight and another on the ground.  But if it had failed a couple of hours earlier in the flight.....you can imagine the rest.  In the end, I decided I needed a good starter drive adapter ALL of the time, and deice protection about 2% of the time, or never if I make good airmanship decisions.  Not to mention I got about 8-15 knots back in airspeed depending on cruise alt.

Maybe I just had a bad batch of starter drive adapters, maybe not.  But the TCM guys will blame the deice system, and the deice boys will say it's a bad design on the motor side.  Bottom line is- you lose either way.

If you are putting the system on a different motor, this may be irrelevant information, but talk thru this topic when deciding to mount something on the back of a 550. 

Having said all of this, when the system did work ( I actually saw it 2 times in 18 months), it certainly rid the leading edges of ice.... 

Bob Rickard

IV-P  N619SJ 

On Sep 7, 2010, at 6:48 PM, Jack Cowell <jfcowell@gmail.com> wrote: