P38 manual trim

[FLS]

it does move the stick and pedals.....watch em as you adjust.

i think there was another thread......there are no trim tabs modeled in the game.

Given that you can see trim tabs and adjusting trim has the effect of moving trim tabs I'm not clear on what you mean when you say they aren't modeled. Do you mean that the tabs don't move on your monitor like the stick and pedals do?

[CAP1]

Given that you can see trim tabs and adjusting trim has the effect of moving trim tabs I'm not clear on what you mean when you say they aren't modeled. Do you mean that the tabs don't move on your monitor like the stick and pedals do?

no, they don;t. i can see the ailerons, rudder, and elevator move though.


there was a thread a couple months ago, just on trim in general, rather than being specific to the 38. in there, someone had brought up the fact that there are no tabs modeled in here...functionally that is......

 like i mentioned before, i pretty much adjust for the speed i want to fly at.

 if i'm in a slow fight, i do trim a lot of up elevator. i know it doesn't give me any turn advantages, but it does seem to "feel" better to me.
 the only drawback, is that if the con extends, then i have to re-trim for fast flight.

[nimble]

Still having problems with the nose mounted guns. I'm so used to aiming for convergence that it's totally throwing me off. Dunno if it's really something I have to adapt to or just lack of confidence. Tips?

[CAP1]

Still having problems with the nose mounted guns. I'm so used to aiming for convergence that it's totally throwing me off. Dunno if it's really something I have to adapt to or just lack of confidence. Tips?

when given time to aim, i suck.


i try to never shoot any more than 400 out, although i've hit at 1k.

you should still set a convergence though. although your guns are nose mounted, they're below the sight. accordingly, the longer your convergence, the more "up" they'll shoot. i

 i think murdr did an article with diagrams showing this.

 if you set to 200 conv., in theory, you could shoot right under a 600 yd. target, and vice versa.

[Shuffler]

I fly with CT on most all the time. Manual just means your head has to be in the cockpit more instead of outside where it should be. The less I have to deal with on my own plane the more I can deal with my opponents plane.

[Soulyss]

Lephturn used to have a site that had an excellent write up on the various trim modes with the pros and cons of each, unfortunately it no longer seems to be up.

Looks like it's been resurrected.
http://users.eastlink.ca/~sconrad/index.htm
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*edit* I'll cut and paste the bit from his article regarding Combat Trim
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4.  Combat Trim

Combat Trim is a feature of Aces High that makes managing trim much easier in most situations.  Since the nature of a computer simulation makes trim conditions much more important than they would be in real life, Combat Trim (CT) is used to decrease the workload under many conditions.  With no CT, you would be messing with the manual trim keys much of the time and be unable to perform well without manual trim.  While folks with large expensive flight control systems are able to map the trim functions to extra hat switches and such, it put those of us with simple joysticks at a distinct disadvantage.  To even the playing field a bit and reduce the workload, HiTech Creations built Combat Trim.  CT is a system that automatically adjusts the trim tabs on your aircraft while in flight to get you "close" to an in trim condition within the normal flight envelope.  While CT does automatically adjust your trim for you, it does not get the trim exactly right.  If you are just cruising around on your way to a fight in Aces High, as long as CT is enabled you should be able to let go of the stick and have the aircraft stay on a straight and level course, or at least close.

The most important thing to understand about CT is it's limitations.  CT does not work immediately or exactly, it does not work well at very high or very low speeds, and it does not take into account things like flaps.  Basically, CT is simply a table of pre-generated trim settings for various airspeeds with the aircraft in a clean condition. (Aerodynamically clean, meaning no flaps or gear deployed.)  As your speed and altitude change, CT automatically adjusts your trim tabs for you to get close to a balanced trim condition.  While CT is fine for just cruising around looking for a fight, when you actually engage in combat, you may or may not want to use CT depending on the conditions.  The first limitation of CT is that it's table has a relatively small range of speeds for which it has corresponding trim conditions.  Although I do not know the exact numbers, in my estimation any speed below about 150 or over about 400 depending on the plane tends to be outside CT's scope of adjustment.  That means that as I dive to high speed for an escape, CT won't compensate for that high speed, and will make it much more difficult to pull out of the dive.  At low speeds such as those experienced in a sustained angles fight, CT may not give me enough up elevator trim for a proper center point.  Being out of trim in a low speed turn fight can make maneuvering more difficult, and it can make it very difficult to set up a good guns solution.  In addition to the low speed, CT does not take into account the effect of deploying combat flaps on your trim condition.  Since many aircraft make use of combat flaps in low speed air combat, this can lead to an aircraft that is far out of trim, and the resulting control issues and problems setting up a stable shot.

By default Combat Trim is enabled in Aces High.  I recommend you leave CT enabled in the setup options.  The beauty of CT is that simply using any of the manual trim keys shuts off CT.  This allows a smart pilot to use CT when it is useful, and to quickly shut it off when it is a problem.  CT can be switched on again by using any of the Auto Trim modes.  There are some reasons that you may want to disable Combat Trim entirely.  If you are comfortable with the manual trim adjustments and have a good control setup, pure manual trim when done properly can be an advantage, especially at the extremes of the flight envelope.  Another reason you may want to disable CT is to increase the "feel" you get from the flight model.  With CT enabled, you don't sense the changes in speed through your trim balance like you would normally because CT is adjusting your trim condition to match your speed.  Some pilots find this a valuable type of feedback, and they disable CT entirely to ensure they get the additional feedback that only manually trimming your plane can give.  The downside of disabling CT is simply that you must stay on top of you trim condition using the manual trim keys and the auto-trim modes instead, so it is more of a workload when flying.