The A2A Simulations Community

"Come share your passion for flight"
It is currently Sun May 19, 2013 5:54 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 7 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:57 am 
Offline
Airman

Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:24 pm
Posts: 18
Location: Germany
Hello,
I
Did my first ride, and the Hawk was well to manage except trimming it.
One tick up, you move up like sailplane hitting a big thermal.
One tick down, your going a dive.
At least i avoided to look at the vario but had my eyes on the horizon.

The spit is more reliable there, you can get a setting where she is very stable.

Any experiances or advices?

Peter


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:22 am 
Offline
A2A Spitfire Crew Chief
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:41 pm
Posts: 3207
Peter,

With the P-40 it is all about fuel load. There are wide differences in handling when certain tanks are full or empty. The "reserve" or "fuselage" tank is particularly problematic.
This is a feature of some of these high performance aircraft and is a symptom of the ever increasing need for fuel/range.

Later Spitfires with the rear tank were practically uncontrollable with that tank full..so much so that even though the tank was factory fitted on the "low back" Mk IXs, it was actually FORBIDDEN to use it!! Most had teh fuelcocks wired off!


Search this forum re fuel load and you should pick up some good rules of thumb/tips.

Darryl

_________________
Image Image
...Some say he never blinks, and that he roams around the woods at night foraging for Merlin parts...


Image Image Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:13 am 
Offline
Airman

Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:24 pm
Posts: 18
Location: Germany
Thank you.


I´ll give it a try and test some fuel settings.
That shows this fantastic A2A aircrafts aren´t created to light the fire and run. Love it.

Peter


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:46 am 
Offline
A2A Chief Pilot
User avatar

Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:31 am
Posts: 1832
Location: East Coast United States
sparrows wrote:
Hello,
I
Did my first ride, and the Hawk was well to manage except trimming it.
One tick up, you move up like sailplane hitting a big thermal.
One tick down, your going a dive.
At least i avoided to look at the vario but had my eyes on the horizon.

The spit is more reliable there, you can get a setting where she is very stable.

Any experiances or advices?

Peter


One thing about trim, and it's especially prevalent in trimming a fighter like the P40;

The technique you use in trimming the airplane is extremely important so that you're not working against yourself. There is a sequence involved and it's very important you follow it. That sequence is as follows;
1. Nose........PIN the nose where you want it.
2. Power........adjust the power where you want it.
3. Trim.........trim the pressure off the stick.

It's notable concerning #3 that using a desktop simulator controller you can't "feel" the aircraft like you can in actual flight in a real airplane. (Force feedback is NOT the answer to this). So after you have pinned the nose and are holding it steady with the controller, then adjusted the power where you want it, use your trim CAREFULLY and SLOWLY in extremely small and subtle steps to "find" a "sweet spot" where it's easy to maintain the nose position you desire.
It's also notable that in an actual prop fighter, you are trimming all the time with every power, airspeed, and attitude change, especially as fuel is burned and changes the cg.
Hope all this helps a bit.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:51 am 
Offline
Senior Airman

Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 3:28 pm
Posts: 109
I have always used the joystick trim as a coarse trim adjustment and the Num Pad 1 and 7 for fine tuning with aircraft that are sensitive to trim. That combined with slight power adjustments has worked for me and the P-40. Still that Fuselage tank is the first to feed though.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:14 pm 
Offline
Senior Airman
User avatar

Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:25 pm
Posts: 138
Dudley Henriques wrote:
sparrows wrote:
Hello,
I
Did my first ride, and the Hawk was well to manage except trimming it.
One tick up, you move up like sailplane hitting a big thermal.
One tick down, your going a dive.
At least i avoided to look at the vario but had my eyes on the horizon.

The spit is more reliable there, you can get a setting where she is very stable.

Any experiances or advices?

Peter


One thing about trim, and it's especially prevalent in trimming a fighter like the P40;

The technique you use in trimming the airplane is extremely important so that you're not working against yourself. There is a sequence involved and it's very important you follow it. That sequence is as follows;
1. Nose........PIN the nose where you want it.
2. Power........adjust the power where you want it.
3. Trim.........trim the pressure off the stick.

It's notable concerning #3 that using a desktop simulator controller you can't "feel" the aircraft like you can in actual flight in a real airplane. (Force feedback is NOT the answer to this). So after you have pinned the nose and are holding it steady with the controller, then adjusted the power where you want it, use your trim CAREFULLY and SLOWLY in extremely small and subtle steps to "find" a "sweet spot" where it's easy to maintain the nose position you desire.
It's also notable that in an actual prop fighter, you are trimming all the time with every power, airspeed, and attitude change, especially as fuel is burned and changes the cg.
Hope all this helps a bit.


Dudley, have you tried http://code.google.com/p/fscode/wiki/RealTrim? Basically lets you do steps 1 and 2 above. You designate a button to hold after step 1 and and as you move the stick back to neutral it adjusts the trim so that when you release the button at neutral stick your all "trimmed up".

Steve


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Hard to trim
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:54 pm 
Offline
A2A Chief Pilot
User avatar

Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:31 am
Posts: 1832
Location: East Coast United States
rc flyer wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote:
sparrows wrote:
Hello,
I
Did my first ride, and the Hawk was well to manage except trimming it.
One tick up, you move up like sailplane hitting a big thermal.
One tick down, your going a dive.
At least i avoided to look at the vario but had my eyes on the horizon.

The spit is more reliable there, you can get a setting where she is very stable.

Any experiances or advices?

Peter


One thing about trim, and it's especially prevalent in trimming a fighter like the P40;

The technique you use in trimming the airplane is extremely important so that you're not working against yourself. There is a sequence involved and it's very important you follow it. That sequence is as follows;
1. Nose........PIN the nose where you want it.
2. Power........adjust the power where you want it.
3. Trim.........trim the pressure off the stick.

It's notable concerning #3 that using a desktop simulator controller you can't "feel" the aircraft like you can in actual flight in a real airplane. (Force feedback is NOT the answer to this). So after you have pinned the nose and are holding it steady with the controller, then adjusted the power where you want it, use your trim CAREFULLY and SLOWLY in extremely small and subtle steps to "find" a "sweet spot" where it's easy to maintain the nose position you desire.
It's also notable that in an actual prop fighter, you are trimming all the time with every power, airspeed, and attitude change, especially as fuel is burned and changes the cg.
Hope all this helps a bit.


Dudley, have you tried http://code.google.com/p/fscode/wiki/RealTrim? Basically lets you do steps 1 and 2 above. You designate a button to hold after step 1 and and as you move the stick back to neutral it adjusts the trim so that when you release the button at neutral stick your all "trimmed up".

Steve


This looks like a good program and should work for some. I have nothing but respect for folks like this who devote time and effort with freeware programs designed to make everyone's simulator experience a better one.
For me personally; I took a long look at the trim situation a long time ago and made a decision on how I'd handle it for my own personal use. Fortunately for me, a lot of the airplanes I've flown during my career used electric trim, especially the jets. What I've done was to assign my trim function to a 4 way stick hat for a thumb position that replicates the pine tree switches I'm used to. The pitch trim is a vertical axis function and aileron trim if available is a lateral axis function.
This allows me the normal procedure for pitch, power, trim, which works beautifully for me.

This small freeware program might work beautifully for others however and I see no reason not to recommend it.
Dudley Henriques


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 7 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group