Trimming vs. Realism

[mora]

Many people seem to think that trimming ads realism to game play. Of course real planes had trims, but they didn't have Fly By Wire controls as we have.

IRL the trim changes apply pressure to the stick and it can be countered by either giving forward, back or side pressure to the stick. In an FBW flightsim there's no physical feedback from the trim changes so the pilot will constantly have keep an eye on the horizon and/or instruments. This makes the pilots workload greater than IRL  and is unrealistic.

The rudder is a biggest problem. In a real aircraft you feel the aircrafts movements and have a 3D vision, and you will sense significant sideslip just by looking out of the window. In a sailplane you can sense the sideslip from differing sirfloew sounds.  All in all, in a real plane you will feel a sideslip just by sitting there without looking at you instruments. In a real plane there are also pedal forces which notify the pilot about a sideslip. In AH the only thing to detect a sideslip is the ball. I believe that it's unrealistic to fly and constantly keep your eye on the ball.

I think that HTC has a great solution to these problems, and it's called the auto trim. I have only one gripe about the system. While flying would like to be able to trim elevator manually. When the AT is on this cannot be done....

HTC please consider implementing an auto trim system in which all control axis could be configured independently.

[DamnedRen]

Did you know that you can turn off auto combat trim and manually trim your plane as you desire? Then when you want to go back to neutral level trim just hit X and go on auto level and the plane will retrim itself?

It can be fun to mess with and you get the same effect of manually trimming and flying the plane.

[Swarmed]

Ren, he wants to be able to keep auto trim on everything BUT the elevator.

[DamnedRen]

I know, Swarmed . But he can trim the plane with auto combat turned on, anytime he wants and I prefer to look at all the options rather than limit someone to one choice due game limitations.

So his choices are really not as limited as he thinks.  Let's take a closer look.

Auto Combat Trim On (ACT) - you can manually trim the plane in elevator (or any axis) with np. All you need to do is hit any of the auto pilots to turn ACT back on. No harm done yet you got to play with the trims.

A closer look at trimming means you mess with the elevator as you desire. You might throw in a click of aileron to offset any P-factor for a given power setting. You can easily adjust for true rudder using the ball. In essence you are set the ruds and ail's and spend all yer time messing with the elevators which is what he wanted.

ACT Off. You do the same as above only hitting any of the auto pilots does not turn ACT back on on. It also has a tendency to leave trims you input (and not resetting using the X key) when you really want the plane trimmed for something else.  That's why I suggested he mess with the ACT off. Hitting X resets the trim so he begins from a neutral level setting. However, as mentioned, until he does that he is stuck with whatever trim he input.

As I mentioned, it's simple fix using the limitations imposed by the game. BTW, I prefer a good dogfight any day over the "realism" of always resetting trims for a given attitude or power setting. I mean...it is a game, ain't it?

[john9001]

i always fly with Combat Trim off, it's no big deal , only trim you really have to mess with is elevator. I always trim for neutral stick as in RL.

BTW, if you hot pad , remember to retrim to takeoff settings and retract your flaps, lol.

44MAG

[DamnedRen]

Originally posted by john9001
i always fly with Combat Trim off, it's no big deal , only trim you really have to mess with is elevator. I always trim for neutral stick as in RL.

 Real fighter pilots tend to trim a lil nose down. For flying and fighting. Reason is it helps with unloading should the situation arise. Seeing as we don't have real fighter pilots just about anything will work for anyones needs.

IMHO, try everything and go with what you think works. If you end up dying alot perhaps your thoughts might be a lil skewed but hey! It's all good .

44MAG

[eilif]

In AH the only thing to detect a sideslip is the ball. I believe that it's unrealistic to fly and constantly keep your eye on the ball.

origionaly posted by mora

i have manual trim set on axis' on my tqs throttle, "combat trim" is for bananas.

origionaly posted by Eilif

if you get used to combat trim in ah you will  have a big shock when you play other sims,  after a while triming the plane manualy will come as second nature and you wont need the slip ball. combat trim is very limited in the long run.

[DamnedRen]

IMHO, it's always a good idea to learn to walk before you run. It's akin to leaning to fly a Cessna 152, then a Beach Bonanza and a Cessna Citation before you try and fly a B-747-200. The odds of doing it decrease for every step you skip.

The game provides you with a trim feature that helps you to learn to walk and run. As your skills increase you can try turning things off. This helps you to learn more about the plane you have chosen to fly. To accept someones take on "how to" use a game feature to its fullest ability without learning the basics will not make you a better fighter pilot in this game and only delay the learning cycle. To be successul in this game the learning curve is very steep with a lot of acquired skills. Learn the tactics neccessary to become proficient in the game and the rest will come easy.

Hope this helps.

[wrag]

Hmmm...

I don't like the way some planes seem to flop around allot more when I use combat trim vs with no combat trim.

Guess I take em closer to the edge of their flight envolope, or something.

So I fly with it off.  At high speed on most planes I find I have to input abit of left rudder to maintain the ball at center????

The 109g10 takes a huge amount of this.

Oddly in a right hand turn at times I need left rudder to center the ball in the 109g10.

[mora]

Ren, I'm aware that I can snap it on and off when I need to. I would just want the convenience of not having to. This is not a learning curve thing, I've been here since 1.04.

Wrag, yes the combat trim works better in other planes. That's another thing I'd like to see rectified.

[GScholz]

"Real fighter pilots tend to trim a lil nose down. For flying and fighting. Reason is it helps with unloading should the situation arise. Seeing as we don't have real fighter pilots just about anything will work for anyones needs."


109 pilots used to trim nose-up in combat to help them pull hard G's at high speed. Also prevented lawndarting in dives.

[OIO]

thats why you fly the 38 without autotrim.


you only have to trim the elevator