I saw an interesting thread here the other day, that seems to have disappeared, about setting up your X52 to handle trim on one of the throttle rotaries. It used the standard FSX controller settings, with sensitivity/null zones etc. After experimenting with it, I wasn't able to find a decent compromise, so I have been playing with the profiler.

 

The NGX stab trim is unusual (imho) in that it takes a lot of movement to create a relatively small amount of shift in trim value. Buttons are an ideal way to deal with that, and indeed as I understand it there are trim up/down buttons on the yoke for just that reason. How then to use a rotary when it turns less than 360deg, and when high sensitivity settings (necessary to get the range of movement) mean uncommanded changes/spikes?

 

Like this, I suggest:

 

1 In profiler, go to the rotary you want to use - I use Rotary 2, you'll find it at the bottom of the list

 

2 Right-click the rotary box, and choose "bands" - it will give you by default 3 bands

 

3 Use the "clear bands" button to get rid of the 3. Then click in the band space to create 2 bands. Use the "create equal" button to make sure the bands are 50/50 in size

 

4 Assign - in FSX controller setup - 2 keys to elevator trim up/down. I use I and U, but any key combo will do

 

5 In the profiler, right click in the 0-50 band you've just created, and choose "advanced command" from the menu at the top of the list - in the dialog that pops up, click in the "repeat" area then hit either I or U or whatever you've assigned as trim up in step 4. 2 key presses should appear. Ok that, and name the band section trim up or down - no key press seems to appear in it, so a name is all you have to show it is set

 

6 Repeat step 5 for the 50-100 band, using the other assigned key

 

Done.

 

Now when you move the rotary clockwise (or a/c - depending which way you've done it) your NGX trim wheel will spin in the right direction at a constant speed for as long as you keep the rotary there - and when you rotate it back to centre, it'll stop - and in the opposite direction, the same will happen, for opposite trim.

 

Obviously, if you've a rotary that can directly handle the full range of the trim movement, or if you've spare buttons, none of this is necessary.

 

The NGX stab trim is unusual (imho) in that it takes a lot of movement to create a relatively small amount of shift in trim value.

 

It's only unusual because basically every other airliner (admittedly including some of our past ones) are wrong with respect to this. The NGX's rate of trim change match the real life aircraft exactly - it even modulates depending on the phase of flight based on flap position, airspeed etc. This is something we worked really hard to get right and we had to work around a lot of limitations in FSX to do it. It's part of the reason the actual animation of the wheel can't be exactly right.

 

I am not a fan of essentially untrimmable addons where the rate of change is so high that you can never find the "in trim" setting when handflying - just one tap of the button in either direction puts you too high or low etc.

 

At any rate though, using a rotary axis on a stick really isn't very realistic as the real airplane has the switches on the yoke and the actual speed of the trim is regulated by the systems of the airplane.