Author Topic: Manual trim guys (Read 979 times)

WOZ30BAT · « **on:** July 06, 2007, 04:29:09 PM »

How do you know when your plane is out of trim? I fly with CT because I don't think I would know when my plane is flying @ "its best". Maybe I'm not fully understanding the purpose of trim. I do know that a plane in trim will perform better than a plane out of trim but that gets me back to the original question. How do you know when your plane is at its best form?

Clueso · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2007, 04:36:51 PM »

If your plane is in trim when you take your hand off the stick it continues to fly straight. If you have to push on the stick (or rudder) to hold it straight its out of trim. Various speeds changes the trim all the time. When your going fast the trim is quite different than at slow speeds.

Murdr · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2007, 04:42:33 PM »

You have ever changing forces on your plane. For instance, go faster, you have more lift, go slower, you generate less lift. Trim is there to adjust for that. If you were flying a real plane, you would neither want to be constantly forcing the stick forward, or pulling it back just to stay level. The idea is to set the trim tabs so that the resting point of your stick (ie. not forcing it forward/back/left/right) leaves you with a fairly neutral attitude where your nose won't lift or fall, and you have no roll.

Murdr · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2007, 04:52:43 PM »

Now as far as performance in AH goes, your elevator trim is often a matter of preference. I like to have the nose a bit on the heavy side, because that gives me more range of control on the backstick half of the axis, and also I would rather ease off the stick to line up a shot rather than need to push the nose down to do the same.

You should try to keep your rudder and aeliron trim fairly neutral at all times. The nice thing is that once they are neutral they should pretty much stay that way unless you release external payloads that are not mounted on your centerline, or if you change your power settings. The roll and yaw trim are probably more important to performance overall because it will be harder to "ride the edge" if you also have to fight improper roll trim while doing it.

Technically how you have your elevator trim is not going to hurt your performance except at very high speeds. Here are more comments on elevator trim.

WOZ30BAT · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2007, 05:29:24 PM »

I've been practicing flying with CT off & the aileron trim seems to be the toughest to keep adjusted. The plane wants to roll evn with no stick input. I would take that torque is causing that & the aileron trim should by default be compensated to the opposite side of the prop spin a bit. But I am far from a physics major.

BaldEagl · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2007, 01:00:17 AM »

I never really worry about trim. On the way to or from a fight or target I'm usually on auto-pilot, thus combat trim is on.

The only times I really use manual trim is to break compression or nose-lift tendancies in a dive (using elevator trim). The other time is to make a lazy turn using rudder and aileron trim while on auto pilot, usually in a bomber, and they return to neutral once you let go.

Serenity · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2007, 01:27:13 AM »

For the most part, I use CT. However, I use manual trim to aid in certain maneuvers. Also, if I take damage, I trim to recover. For example, 3 times in the last month one of the wingtips has been shot off of my P-47, but because I have rudder, aileron, and elevator trim all mapped to my joystick, I can slam opposite rudder and aileron trim, and have ACTUALLY been able to land all 3 times. Basically, use CT in heated combat, because chances are the other guy is. No need to restrict yourself unecessarily.

Avaro · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2007, 01:41:13 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Serenity
For the most part, I use CT. However, I use manual trim to aid in certain maneuvers. Also, if I take damage, I trim to recover. For example, 3 times in the last month one of the wingtips has been shot off of my P-47, but because I have rudder, aileron, and elevator trim all mapped to my joystick, I can slam opposite rudder and aileron trim, and have ACTUALLY been able to land all 3 times. Basically, use CT in heated combat, because chances are the other guy is. No need to restrict yourself unecessarily.

Don't forget in compressions!

As noted above its for diffrent situations.. I mostly use it for high-speed maneuvers or compression. Err What happend to 109's and p40's Serenity?

Serenity · « **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2007, 01:42:05 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Avaro
Don't forget in compressions! As noted above its for diffrent situations.. I mostly use it for high-speed maneuvers or compression.

Jugs dont compress

lol but yeah, when I flew Bf-109s, trim was the ONLY way I survived.

Avaro · « **Reply #9 on:** July 10, 2007, 01:48:47 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Serenity
Jugs dont compress

lol but yeah, when I flew Bf-109s, trim was the ONLY way I survived.

What you gave up on my planes??

Sigh..

LCDR_EAGLES · « **Reply #10 on:** July 12, 2007, 06:24:04 PM »

Well for me, Combat Trim, or no, my plane still rolls and climbs on its own. I have calibrated my stick in windows, and in the game, but it doesn't help me any, any suggestions?

Murdr · « **Reply #11 on:** July 12, 2007, 07:48:55 PM »

I did neglect to mention how I personally use trim. Generally I have CT turned off, but I have a button mapped where I can toggle it on and off quick if I need to re-trim quickly. Also there are specific situations that vary between plane models where I know I don't want to re-trim using CT. In that case I use manual trim (have pitch and roll trim mapped to stick) to adjust.

Another good trim tool is the Trim Set function (default key is the . key). How that works is that when you press the key it will try to adjust the trim according to what your stick input is at the time. In other words, if you need to use the stick to keep wings and nose level, when you press Set Trim, it will try to add trim to match your stick input so it will be in trim when you release the stick.

What kind of stick do you have eagles?

TequilaChaser · « **Reply #12 on:** July 12, 2007, 09:57:25 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Murdr
I did neglect to mention how I personally use trim. Generally I have CT turned off, but I have a button mapped where I can toggle it on and off quick if I need to re-trim quickly. Also there are specific situations that vary between plane models where I know I don't want to re-trim using CT. In that case I use manual trim (have pitch and roll trim mapped to stick) to adjust.

Another good trim tool is the Trim Set function (default key is the . key). How that works is that when you press the key it will try to adjust the trim according to what your stick input is at the time. In other words, if you need to use the stick to keep wings and nose level, when you press Set Trim, it will try to add trim to match your stick input so it will be in trim when you release the stick.

is scarey, sometimes when you read your own thoughts & actions someone else has written

LCDR_EAGLES · « **Reply #13 on:** July 12, 2007, 11:52:24 PM »

I have a sidewinder pro 2 joystick, and it is a piece of crapola, I need to get me a new one someday. Although on other flight sims I don't have the same problem.
I will try the .key next time i load AHII, thanks much for the tip.

is CH still the general consensus as far as good sticks go? I read a thread here about that. I would like to pick up a HOTAS Cougar from TM, but I don't really wanna shell out the $250USD for it

I also saw a post with a good deal on a saitek joystick, I may have to check it out.

Thanks again.