Combat Trim? Yeah? or Nay?

[rv6]

I hit CTRL-X the other day by accident, (meant to hit SHIFT-X, autopilot)..  Later noted that the planes nose wandered all around and required constant minute adjustments, to keep nose aligned.  Thought the potentiometers in joystick were shot.  No, it was COMBAT-TRIM = OFF.

I hit CTRL-X again, CT=ON, and the plane once again tracked nicely through attack and hard maneuvers..  No "nose wander" as if 1/2 of the rudder was shot off. (CT=Off)

I've been doing this for a very long time and never screwed with CT (on/off) and asked on country-channel, what's the choice of CT ON? or OFF?

It was a long string of "Yes! It's Good!" and "No, don't do it!"..   50/50 split.

Thus, I ask you (the AH BBS Guru's)..

Whats the deal with Combat Trim?  Leave it OFF or ON?  Or maybe click it ON for short periods of tight ACM?  I dunno..

Thanks in advance,

RV6

[The Fugitive]

For the most part I fly with it on, however, in my 38, as I go nose up I can get into a possition where the CT tries to trim my plane in a "nose down" atitude due to the angle of attack as I get close to looping over the top and my plane will get stuck in the air....kinda  

Stabbing the CT on and off again will "trim" your plane out for the the speed your doing at the time of the stab.... to get rid of that nose wander you were talking about. It kind of like "gaming the game" type move when you do it, but it is posible to pull just a tad more performance out of some planes doing it, and some times thats all ya need to win  

[SunKing]

Fly with it off. Toggle it to clean up your trims when needed.

[B@tfinkV]

i use the thumb button for check 6 view and the down hat to trim plane. I then have a second thumb button that turns CT on and offf.  means i can quickly trim the elevators up, and then reet to neutral in an instant.



dont ask why i uae the hat switch for trim and thumb for chk6, it just works:)






combat trim+manual trim - yeah!! big time.


some of the planes I need manual trim in:


p38
typh
temp
P51
190
109
ki84
F4U

[uberhun]

Fly with it off. You will become a better pilot for it. I set my trims to my rotarys on my stick. I can dial in when I come in for the merge, also with them off you can pull more eratic maneuvers.

[Eagler]

once i found out that the majority of the great sticks in AH fly with it on or at least as Batfink describes above, I set up a button on my X45 to toggle it on & off. I turn it back on everytime I recenter my trim rotors as when you manual trim, it turns it off. You regain speed faster with it on which is good for chasin down someone who is trying to "extend" after losing position in the T&B portion of the fight.

[Wilbus]

Have ALWAYS flown with it off untill a just a week ago.

In some planes I don't use it at all (Ki84) but in the 109 I do. Low medium speeds and of course with a quick press I can shut it off (dives for example).

I also have rotaries to trim the plane, however, as you don't feel the plane as you do in real life the trimming can be a bit tricky. I've found that using CT improves my aim somewhat and helps alot against the dredden nose bounce I've had so much trouble with.

[eh]

I fly with CT on by default until I know when I am going to enter a real difficult fight, especially when I am in a P38 and the Ki 84. Switching CT off and being able to adjust elevator trim helps get the maximum out of the incredible flaps on those planes.

So, I have buttons programmed to toggle CT, and to raise and lower elevator. Those are programmed in Mode 2, so they aren't very helpful in flying Panzers.

[Mustaine]

same as most who posted i toggle it on / off. rotaries set to analog trim, and set it for over compensation on the ailerons for engine torque (helps stop snap stalls in anti-torque turns) and use nose up elevator in tight turns. i sometimes use nose down to get fast, you can get an extra 10 mph out of a dora manually trimming it in a wepped slight dive (5º down). neutral trim while pulling a black out from a dive you can ride the tunnel vision better also.

[eilif]

Combat trim is great for people who have never flown in a virtual plane and have no idea what trim is, In ah since alot of the people who play also are into things like counter strike and such and are just hear for the game it suits em fine. I built some roters to trim the plane manualy and its great since im just a sim geek, I used to find CT completely retarted, but it really is great for getting new players, I never use it tho because it makes flying other sims harder since you expect to be able to just magicaly center the plane. I like to "feel the plane" as much as virtualy possible and find CT makes planes fly pretty generic, once i turned it off i was forced to feel out the envalope of each plane which made things more imersive and i learned each plane that much better.

[detch01]

I have combat trim defaulted to on because I'm lazy. Once I'm in a fight though I tend to manually trim whatever I'm in a little nose heavy for the speed I'm flying. Assuming I survive the fight, once the fight is over I'll put CT back on.


Just my 0.02



asw

[WilldCrd]

im a 50/50 mix kinda flyer
normal flight i use CT in a fight or on jabbo runs ill manually trim
however like willbus i to suffer greatly from the nose bounce effect so i tend to hit the CT on before actually shooting. i have a thumb button for the CT on my x45. its the lil 4 way mouse button on the throttle. it also is my auto pilot and gear button (up and down)
the rotaries are for trim pitch and aileron. Ive never really messed with the yaw trim and honestly dont fly on manual enough to have to mess with it.

i found that in a turn fight manually trimming helps in tightening my turn...at least to me it does. and jabbo in a 38 i find pitch trim is a necessity as i ussually start to high, dive to steeply and forget the dive flaps altogether .

I a fight with a good stick tho im ussually turning it off and on alot. Mainly due to nose bouncey issues. im a bad enough shot but with CT off and say 6 50's firing...it looks like i got my guns firing in 6 different directions...except to the rear. thats ussually covered by the enmy con shooting ME

[Golfer]

I fly with it on.  I use an X-45 and the pointer finger hat switch on the back side of the throttle to be my elevator/aileron trim.  The only time I use them are in 262s for takeoff, P-38's compressing and when it's the last ditch option to pull the 262 out of a dive before I lawndart.

[Kermit de frog]

Combat trim is very helpful if you do not want to learn how to manually trim your plane.  It's like enabling "auto take off" or "stall limiter".  It helps noobies learn to fly without having to deal with trimming the plane.  Using manual trim usually doesn't give you an advantage.


You can concentrate more on the fighting part if you leave combat trim on.  Some people can not do manual trim and fight at the same time due to being unable to multi-task.

[StarOfAfrica2]

For the most part it wont hurt anything to fly with it on.  A few planes, most notably the P38, react badly in certain situations if you have it on.  Otherwise, the average pilot probably benefits more from having it on than having it off.  

Where it hurts you the most, IMO, is that if you rely on the CT all the time, you forget or simply dont bother to setup controls to manually trim your plane.  There are times when its a huge advantage to being able to quickly adjust trim manually.  

I dont have all the fancy programmable buttons that alot of the other guys do, so I've learned to make do with using the CT like alot of the others do, as a "bump" to get everything aligned.  In a fight, I like to have in on usually, but I DO have manual controls handy for the elevator trim.  I used to fly 109s alot, and still do from time to time.  If you do, you'll notice that it compresses more than most planes in the game.  Having the ability to trim the nose up when your controls are otherwise locked is very handy, and can keep you from making yourself an embarrassed pancake.  It can also come in handy in those instances where you find yourself stuck down on the deck and involved in one of those twisty-turny fights for your life.