but this wet wing seems to have a few more limitations. 

 

 

The record of tks installations at large does not support that statement whatsoever. 

I haven't talked to a single TKS owner that wasn't ecstatic about the performance, especially as compared to boots.

If therma-wing turns out to be a better system (which I hope it does) it cannot be denied at this point that there are

far more TKS installations, decades of experience with a wide variety of icing conditions, and many very happy owners.

I don't know what happened with the cirrus but it has not been shown that the tks system was operating on that flight.

It was about an hour trip anyway.  If I had launched, and I doubt I would have launched in those conditions without a turbo,

the tks would have been on before my wheels left the pavement.

 

Realistically the possible failure modes for a known ice tks system are:

a) the pilot forgets to turn it on.

b) both pumps fail

c) both batteries fail

d) the pilot forgets to fill the tank.

 

The possible failure modes for therma-wing are:

a) the engine quits

b) the big alternator dies

c) one of the controllers dies  (Northcoast redesigned that box multiple times)

d) one of the panels develops a connectivity problem

e) something we haven't discovered yet about therma-wing