First failure ...

MD82

After about 50 hours of flying the Starship, I've received my first failure. And it was an interesting one.

Holding at the holding point for RWY 26 in Barrow, Alaska and about to embark on a North to South voyage that ultimately takes me to Ushuaia, I received Left and Right Forward Boot Fail messages after performing the surface de-ice tests. Temperature was -2°C and every so often I would see one snowflake. No knowing exactly what the issue was, I carried on. Telling myself that in any case, as it is now, I wouldn't need ice protection. Although we're under an overcast, I know it is very thin. After all test complete and on the active, sleet started. I made a command decision and pushed the power levers up. As expected, by 3.000 feet we broke out into the clear. Once at cruise, I started consulting the manuals (and the Active Failures Page) and deduced a R FWD WING BOOT INTEG failure. In other words, probably a boot leak. (Is that correct that this is a boot leak?)

I first consulted the abnormal checklist. Nothing there. So, then I switched to the MMEL to see what this failure could fall under. Surface de-icing is covered as a whole under MEL 30-8. Category C, 1 installed, 0 required as long as flight is not flown or planned into known or forecast icing conditions. A quick glance over to Ketchikan weather reveals 5 SM in light rain and mist, broken at 600 and overcast at 1600. However, the temperature is 11°C before sunrise. So, we press on.

I've got 10 calendar days to fix this baby. By then I should be down in California. A quick stop in Textron Aviation Services in Sacramento, CA might be in order.

What an amazing airplane, and what an experience to fly an airplane that's alive

Two questions:

If the right wing boot is leaking and I perform a manual boot inflate, shouldn't the pressure of the leaking boot drop more than the other? *(See attached picture)*This way a leaking boot can be diagnosed without consulting the failures tab.
Cruising at FL350 in -50°C OAT's, I would expect some contrail. However, there isn't any.

Can these two be looked at for any upcoming updates?