Trim problems - All Aircraft

[falcon409]

One of the things I mapped on my throttle was Nose-up and Nose-down trim. Many times I'd rather hand fly than rely on the AP, especially on short flights for sightseeing. Problem is that it seems that every airplane is set at takeoff with nose-up trim (and yes I understand why that is), however once I've leveled off and begin taking in the amazing scenery I'll trim for straight and level but even though the nose starts to lower, if I take my hand off the controls it goes right back up. Some of the airplanes I fly have trim wheels that are animated but they are not clickable. I've checked the maps for the keyboard and mouse to see what might be overriding my trim setup but found nothing obvious.

Anyone have a similar problem?

 

[J.Case]

Remember: you're trimming for speed - so: when the nose comes down and you're getting a more smash the nose should come up again - less then before but still.....
Your tail feathers are doing a better job when they get blown alright.
Maybe one of our pilots can drop a line or two on this topic with some added value

 

[heywooood]

the best trim control advice I can give is that I have mapped elevator trim to the up and down arrows on my keyboard. When just tapping the keys, this seems to give the best, most minimal inputs to the trim wheel. If I need greater throws I can press and hold the keys for larger trim adjustments.
The other advice would be to use the stick or yoke when you are adjusting trim nose down after climb-out. Use the stick/yoke to push the nose down to level flight, then use the trim nose down input to relieve your forward pressure on the stick to zero. As noted above, as your airspeed increases in level flight the nose is going to creep up again - just repeat with forward pressure on the stick and use the trim wheel nose down until your stick input is no longer needed. Once you have it close to the mark ( near 0 indicated climb rate) you can use small throttle adjustments to perfectly dial it in. After this only updrafts and downdrafts or stormy weather should cause temporary inclination/declination as you fly

 

[azflyboy]

Trim on PC simulators is always a bit of a pain, since there aren't control forces to trim out, and you don't have the "seat of your pants" feedback actual airplanes do. This actually extends to the multi-million dollar full motion sims airlines use, and it always takes me a bit to get used to hand flying the sim when I do recurrent every year.


I have my pitch trim bound to a switch on my Warthog stick, and the process I use is to set the desired cruise power, then trim out whatever pitch input I'm holding, followed by fine-tuning the trim.

MSFS does seem to have airplanes wandering away from level flight easier than they do in the real world, but I'm not sure how much of that is inherent limitations of a PC simulator, and how much might be something with how MSFS handles stability.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

I'm using the Saitek Cessna Trim Wheel for that, works like a charm. With that, I hardly use the elevator in normal flight regimes, except for take off and landing, of course.

 

[Ferry_vO]

With my old joystick I had two buttons assigned to trim, and I would often just run out of trim but still have the aircraft pointing nose up or down.
The new X-56 has a wheel with a center point and so far no issues.

I do have an issue with (some) newly installed aircraft. They are impossible to fly on first attempt, but after a restart from the main menu they seem to perform much better. No idea what is causing that..

 

[Sunny9850]

You take off with a set trim level and then you push the nose down and trim down a little.
You also typically reduce power from takeoff power to a cruise setting.
The airplane now will accelerate at that power setting and that higher airspeed also means increased lift and to some extent also that the trim setting is now more effective, adding a little more nose up. Even though mechanically nothing moved.

In real life if you don’t set a specific altitude you could just leave the airplane alone at that point and it would find a point of equilibrium. It stabilizes in speed and vertical motion and then just motors on. Until nature intervenes and upsets that equilibrium more or less.

In FS as others have pointed out you don’t have the benefits feeling what the airplane does. In a real airplane the flight control forces in the yoke or stick are your initial trim guide. The VSI or Altimeter are only secondary to that, to arrive and hold a specific altitude.
And because of the lag inherent in the reaction of both the sim itself and the aerodynamics of the aircraft you tend to hunt a lot more in FS than in a real airplane.

In our Saratoga I had certain power settings that we typically used and after 1500h you can hit that sweetpot pretty much without even looking. Then just a glance at the gauges and a minor correction here or there and then she would motor on for hours.
I did use the AP, but only on single IFR or night flights over the CA and AZ desert.

 

[jmig]

You take off with a set trim level and then you push the nose down and trim down a little.
You also typically reduce power from takeoff power to a cruise setting.
The airplane now will accelerate at that power setting and that higher airspeed also means increased lift and to some extent also that the trim setting is now more effective, adding a little more nose up. Even though mechanically nothing moved.

In real life if you don’t set a specific altitude you could just leave the airplane alone at that point and it would find a point of equilibrium. It stabilizes in speed and vertical motion and then just motors on. Until nature intervenes and upsets that equilibrium more or less.

In FS as others have pointed out you don’t have the benefits feeling what the airplane does. In a real airplane the flight control forces in the yoke or stick are your initial trim guide. The VSI or Altimeter are only secondary to that, to arrive and hold a specific altitude.
And because of the lag inherent in the reaction of both the sim itself and the aerodynamics of the aircraft you tend to hunt a lot more in FS than in a real airplane.

In our Saratoga I had certain power settings that we typically used and after 1500h you can hit that sweetpot pretty much without even looking. Then just a glance at the gauges and a minor correction here or there and then she would motor on for hours.
I did use the AP, but only on single IFR or night flights over the CA and AZ desert.

I can vouch for the veracity of this post. Like most things in flight simming, trim in the real airplane is much easier than in MSFS. In the real airplane you can feel the stick or yoke go to neutral.

Also, I think that trimming in MSFS is one of the weak points of the experience. Some airplanes will trim much easier than others. Some need far less trim wheel than others. (I am sure this is true in real life, too)

A trick you can try is to turn on the AP and Alt Hold for a bit. This will trim up the airplane. Then turn it off and hand fly.

 

[Sunny9850]

In FS9 and FSX you could engage only ALT hold somehow and still have almost full use of ailerons and rudder.
So the whole trimming issue was pretty much not so much an issue. But I forgot how that was done and have therefore not tried it in MSFS.

 

[Ferry_vO]

Found a setting for an 'AI controlled trim' or something like that in the setings. Made things much worse for me.

 

[DennyA]

Yeah, the sim really needs a "trim up for current attitude" function keypress. It's not a cheat at all, since you don't get the control feedback you'd get in a real plane. It's ridiculously hard to trim for straight and level in many planes compared to real flying.

 

[rvn817j]

I flew last evening in the IEF / Dino C F-35. I also have //42 Flow that has a window showing trim value. I would adjust trim value using a button on my joystick and it would promptly revert to the value of 4 (+). Don't know if it is sim or plane, but something isn't working right.