I was adviced by my CSIP (Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot) to use a rag with TKS fluid on the panels once a month or so (unless the system was used recently) to keep the panels from drying up. Seems to work well.
TKS fluid is certainly approved for washing the panels (obviously 
). I am not sure that just wiping them would do much to prevent the fluid draining out from the porous material inside, over weeks.
It seems to me that one has to run it airborne maybe once a month and accept the waste of say 1 gallon, and the subsequent wash-down, and if the system has not been used for a few weeks then the first entry into icing conditions needs the pump ON an extra few mins earlier.
The propeller ice protection starts up almost immediately every time; takes about 20 seconds.
I think a better way to test TKS is on the ground.
It should use up way less fluid and the fluid coming out (or not) is much more obvious. In flight, one may need to fly on certain headings relative to the sun, to spot the fluid coming out everywhere.
OTOH a ground test leaves four neat lines of stick fluid on the ground It’s OK on grass…
I’ve been testing it on the first flight each month. With a few minutes’ run, this uses up way more fluid than using it for real. Usually…
Peter wrote:
In flight, one may need to fly on certain headings relative to the sun, to spot the fluid coming out everywhere.
Plus it’s almost impossible to confirm tail panels.
A_and_C wrote:
the gliding fraternity say bugs cost them speed and have in flight bug removal systems
Or ask them what they do each spring to make sure the hundreds of holes for the boundary layer suction in high performance gliders are free …
