So after seeing what Trim was for, I jumped into the plane to try it out. (I wrote about that flight in a previous post “A Short Flight”). Then I went back and studied the section further. Being able to test it out in a simulator certainly made it a little easier to understand.
I had to re-trim a couple of times after adjusting the power level. The Air Pilots Manual encourages a lot of Trim use, in a natural way, but also emphasises when it should not be used. Trim shouldn’t be used to change the attitude of the plane – it should be changed by using the yoke and then the force used is trimmed off. It also shouldn’t be used in transient manoeuvres like turns.
Trim is an art, or so I read, but with the limitations of FSX I personally found it to be a bit clumsy. Once it’s trimmed correctly my Cessna 152 flew like a dream, straight and level, but it wasn’t so much of a smooth process to get there. In real life it’d be smooth as you could feel the pressures on the yoke being relieved.
I went through the air exercises laid out in the book – number 2 was specially interesting. It was to see the effects of an incorrectly trimmed aircraft. At 3000 feet and level, I moved the trim wheel forward. It became increasingly difficult to keep level and in the end I lost about 500 feet. Almost impossible to fly, and a good lesson learned in the correct use of my new best friend, Trim.
Apologies because it was a while since my last post – a sick 23 month old daughter and an 8 months pregnant wife took all my time up and if I have no time for Flight Sim, I have no time to blog either!
