Intro and a quick question about trim

[Guest MostinFSX]

Good evening, ladies and gents. I thought I'd just say hello, cos I know it's polite before jumping in asking questions. :) I'm going to apologise in advance if I end up putting this post in the wrong place or otherwise not doing what I'm supposed to be doing - no harm meant.I'm a long-time MSFS user - been simming in the most casual sort of way since FS3 (on an old Amstrad 1512 with a 4-shades-of-grey CGA monitor). I'm now using a 3.4GHz hyperthreaded CPU with an nVidia 6600 GFX card and 1Gb RAM, and FSX creaks along reasonably well with most of the detail turned down. But I'm happy enough for now. After all, is it not written, "upgrades come to those who wait"?Actually, I'm not *that* casual: I do like to try to get things right to some extent; although I admit I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about all this as some of you. For example, as things stand I'd never consider flying in a multiplayer environment because I'd just annoy everyone by not knowing what I was doing.In real life, I completed about half a PPL course in a Cessna 152, and loved every minute of it, but sadly had to pack in due to rising costs. Still, I got some solos done and that counted for a lot.Now, on to my question - silly as it'll no doubt seem. After a long time spent ignoring the poor chap, I thought I'd let Rod Machado have his say, so I've been working through the flight lessons in FSX, and I've just completed my first solo flight (which still, oddly, gives a warm glow even though I've flown 747s - badly - on Flight Sim before). I'm having a nightmare of a time with trim, though. In real, I seem to recall, it's actually quite a bit easier because of the tactile feedback from the yoke. It's the work of seconds to trim the aircraft, and you know when you're trimmed right because you can relax a bit. FS doesn't have that feedback, and otherwise it's just mad trial-and-error, releasing and tightening up on the stick until you get the balance about right. So I wonder, is there such a thing - and would it be considered terrible cheating - as a visual cue I could install or activate that would give me a display of how much pressure the stick's (virtually) exerting on me?Thanks for reading through all that - any replies appreciated!

[scott967 62]

Edit: sorry, this may be fs9 onlyYou might want to take a look at this:http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=118655scott s..

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on an excellent, and too often overlooked, question.I have not been able to get Scott's recommended program to work, so you might also try Russel Dirk's FS Force:http://www.fs-force.com/He has been developing it for a number of years and it does seem to work well at what you want.Best regards.Luis

[timers15 11]

Real trim is nice. The only thing I like better is my Saitek throttle mousewheel bound to trim keys.It'd be awesome if Saitek made a motorized trim wheel add on. It has to be motorised because otherwise when you manually trim after using the autopilot you get an abrupt trim jump.I saw some Italian company with a motorized trim wheel, but 2200 euro?

[delta november 0]

Welcome:If you're talking about elevator trim, it's nearly impossible to dousing the trim control only.The easiest way I've found is to establish level flight and desiredIAS. Then trim as close as you can with trim tab. Finally use your VSIand THROTTLE to nail it. IE: If you notice the VSI showing a slightclimb, reduce the throttle slightly. It's the ONLY way I can get it"On the money".

[Guest MostinFSX]

Wow - quick responses!scott967: Yes, it does look as though it's for FS9, but thank you for the suggestion.Luis: I don't have a force feedback stick as yet, although it is on my list since I've been thinking about it for a while. I must admit I'm not sure quite what to expect from them, though.. Can they simulate stick pressure, or do they just vibrate? I'd love to buy one of these flight yokes and do the job properly, but I'm afraid that's a bit out of my range for the time being..! :()timers15: I've had a go mapping the trim axis to a thumb dial (I'm using a Saitek X35 - the old and creaky version of their HOTAS controller), but it's not ideal. The slightest touch flicks the nose up and down like a thing possessed; so I turned the sensitivity down which helped slightly, but then of course it means I don't have the full wheel range available. And I did get the sudden bounce back to the base position in mid-flight which doesn't do great things for the nerves...So I'm tending to do what delta november does at the moment, and adjusting it via throttle, but it's a bit laborious compared to how I remember it from reality.Anyway, thanks for the replies and suggestions.

[Tim Arnot 5]

I'm with Denny on that one. Since you've done part of a PPL, you'll know the equation Power + Attitude = Performance. Level flight requires a particular attitude for a particular power setting -- or vice versa. Very often the FS trimmer is note fine enough to achieve level flight, so a smidge of power adjustment is needed just to top it off.Getting there, though, is the hard part, without the feedback of control forces, or even a sense of how much trim you are actually winding in. And I'll have to admit that often I'll "cheat" and blip the autopilot altitude hold on for a few moments, just to get established.IRL, trimming is very much easier -- three winds of the trim wheel and the plane essentially stays where you put it.

[Guest PPSFA]

Get a Yoke, they have a rocker for trim and it makes FS much more realisitc.XP Pro SP2-FSX SP2AMD FX60-8800GTS-2 Gigs RAMFEX-GEX-UTUSA-FSGenesis-and a bunch of other stuffComputer optimized by www.fs-gs.com

[Guest MostinFSX]

<< Get a Yoke, they have a rocker for trim and it makes FS much more realisitc. >>I've no doubt. Unfortunately, it's not an option money-wise at the moment. The Saitek Pro Flight looks gorgeous at