Manual Trim

[SpitLead]

I only recently started to use manual trim when flying (elevator and rudder).  Now, I find myself fiddling with the trim all the time at various speeds and angles when climbing/diving.  And at times, I'm fighting the stick in a furball because the trim is not optimal. I want to go back to the default trim settings.  Did I automatically turn off combat trim when I manually changed things and how do I get back to the default settings?  

Also, it seems that when I re-up in the same plane it "remembers" the last trim settings when I got shot down which are not what I use for climbing but for high speed dives and level flight.  Then I gotta fiddle with them again for optimum climb.  To me, it's just a pain that I'd just as soon avoid.  This isn't a bug but I think the trim should be auto-set for climb when you start a sortie.

[Mark Luper]

Spitlead,
You can reset combat trim if you like just by going to the setup menu.

What I do, and i don't use combat trim, is when I take off I trim full up. As soon as the plane leaves the ground I press shift + X and set it on auto angle. This maintians the angle you just took off in. After gaining some speed I press Alt + X for auto climb.

I generaly will press X, which is auto level, a few seconds before a fight to neutralize the controls then adjust as needed.

If you don't want to  mess with manual trim I suggest you re-enable combat trim as it will give you a ball park trim setting for whatever you want to do.

If you want to maximise your flying experience then get used to manualy fiddling with the trim.

Hope this is what you were looking for  

[Rocket]

If you want to re-enable combat trim on the fly hit ctrl X.  
I fly with manual trim but I use all the trim functions at one point or another.
For dives I generally use ShiftX(auto angle) to maintain the level of dive I want.  
For long climbouts I will use ALT X (auto speed) and adjust my speed for what I want with the .speed XXX (XXX= speed in mph).

For steady cruise I use X for auto level.
In a fight I usually try to trim as much as possible myself to get rid of the horrible nose bounce when trying to line up a shot.

Combat trim is ok for getting the plane somewhat close at a certain speed and altitude but during a fight it can't trim as fast as the pilot to maintain a nice stable gun platform.

For ease of use I went into the joystick mapping and set up the second stickset and a couple of buttons to switch sticksets quickly.  On the second stick set I put the trim to the hat with the rudders at up angles.  I can switch from views to trim and back in a very short time and not take my hand from the stick  

S!

Rocket

[SpitLead]

Thanks guys.  

[Lephturn]

Personally, I leave Combat Trim on.  I rarely, if ever, use manual trim.

For BnZ type fighting where you have lots of speed changes, I find combat trim does a good job.  The only time I'll kick into manual trim mode is if I'm in a knock-down, drag-out, on the deck, stick in yer guts type fight.  In that case I use manual trim.  Also, keep in mind that manual trim does NOT take your flaps into account.  For this reason, if you are fighting with some flap popped, it is a good idea to use manual trim to keep it in trim.  It depends on the plane though... sometimes a notch of flap will give you a nose up condition, and sometimes nose down.  In a slow fight, nose up is OK, but nose down is bad.  Make sure you know what putting flap down will do to your bird, and be sure to kick the manual trim in to compensate for it.

I actually don't use manual trim as much as I should.  Partly that's because a low slow Jug is a dead Jug so I try not to get in that situation in the first place.  The other part is that I'm lazy and I just forget.  It's gotten me killed a couple times I'm sure, but no big deal.  

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Mark Luper]

Acutally I started disableing combat trim when I started to try to do some really fast dives in the 47. I can dive comfortably up to betwwen 525 and 550 with manual trim and combat trim made a lawndart out of me.

Also such things as P factor and tourque on take offs and such is back. Feels more like a real airplane again  

[Lephturn]

Just to clarify...

Enabling combat trim does not preclude you from using manual trim.  As soon as you touch the manual trim, combat trim is disengaged.  You can re enable combat trim again by using any of the auto-trim modes.

MarkAT, you are likely surviving the high speed dives because the plane is out of trim enough to push your nose up.    In this situation kicking in manual trim is a good idea.  I do find though that if I am doing things right, I rarely dive this fast.

If you disable combat trim, judicious use of the various auto trim modes will make things much easier.  I have an article up about trim and the auto trim modes here:  http://lephturn.webhop.net/trim.htm

 

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Mark Luper]

You are absolutely correct Leph, any trim inducement will disconnect combat trim. As far as the dives are concerened... I trim nose down to make it go faster and control speed with throttle during the "shake and rattle"  .

What I don't do is yank my stick in that situation  . I am very carefull about control inputs during the "shake".

Interestingly... I have always had full control of the plane, it has never really "compressed" except a couple of times when the combat trim was engaged.