I’m fairly new to flight simulations, but so far the game/simulator is mind blowing! However, trimming has really taken all the fun out of it from me.
I fly with the same aircraft that is in the training and tried another propeller aircraft but they were all the same. When I reach a certain altitude and then try to adjust the trim (no. 7 and no. 1 on keyboard) It won’t be stable at zero (altitude speed). It’s constantly above or below zero, ending in me constantly pressing button 7 and 1.
It can be a bit fiddly sometimes to trim the aircraft out. Myabe you are overcorrecting and trying to trim it too quickly.
What is the aircraft in the training (I havent done any of the training tutorials)..?
Try setting your cruise power, and leaning the mixture, and allowing the airspeed to settle. You will notice that as the aircraft slows, the RPM will also slow, and vice versa. So you might need to adjust the throttle too once the RPM drops and give it a bit more power etc.
Once you have that sorted, them start your trim process. Sometimes youll never get it exactly perfect. In fact you rarely will. Its normal to be say descending at 15fpm and after 5 minutes you need to make a slight adjustment again.
If you try and trim too much too early, youll find the aircraft goes nose up, then the airspeed slows, then the RPM slows, which means less power, and less airspeed, then the nose will drop, and then you’re re adjusting the trim to go nose up again and then you’re way over-trimmed nose up. Then you end up in that cycle of going up and down constantly
It’s always a delicate dance between trim and throttle especially if you have variable winds. It’s never going to be 100% trimmed. If you’re flying by hand slight corrections are always expected.
BarbedJungle explaines it quite well, just one further thing that might help:
First hold altitude with stick input and move the thrustlever until speed maintains, then trim the plane:
Hold the stick to maintain altitude while you trim, just loosen the input while trimming until no more input is necessary.
If you let the airplane get into an unstable state again, you will trim endless.
Thank you guys. For me I usually put the throttle at 75% to 50% when cruising and the rpm would be in the green area in the tachometer every time it’s a different value I put it randomly to be honest. For the mixture I have never touched it, don’t even know what it’s for, sorry
What aircraft? And you said you are new to flight sim.
When you fly, you don’t leave the throttle on full all the time. You need to reduce the throttle to a lower power. Then you can use the throttle to help you trim. ( not in real life but sometimes it helps in the sim)
So trim as best you can at the lower power, then if you are going up, reduce power a tiny bit, wait. If you are descending, increase power a tiny bit. Repeat til it balances out. Others are correct it’s a delicate balance hand flying.
The Power needed depends in the aircraft weigt. So if you fully fueled, you will need more power to fly in a level.
Dont bother about mixture now, it is to “lean” the mixture to save fuel. No need for the beginning.
Your mixture sets your fuel burn. Pull it back as you increase in altitude to lean the fuel to the thinner air. In real aircraft, watch your CHT to ensure you don’t burn valves with too lean a mixture. You should also see a performance jump as you lean the mixture to the best burn. It doesn’t always show well in the sim, but that’s the purpose.
As for trim, you’re not trimming all the time, but in real aircraft, you do have to keep an eye on it. Nothing is ever static in real life. By setting your RPM at the proper point (around 2,300 in a C-172) for straight and level flight, then trimming once level, you should be okay. It’s working well for me in this sim, so I know it works. However, do keep an eye on it…!
When you pull the throttle back, pick an RPM value as a goal, say 2300 in the C172.
Pull the throttle back and give the aircraft a few seconds to adjust (as it slows, the RPM will drop, so again increase a bit of throttle to try and maintain the 2300).
If youre crusing above around 3,000 feet, you will need to lean (pull the red mixture lever out a bit) the mixture back. The mixture is the mixture of fuel and air. As you get higher and the air is thinner, you dont need as much fuel pumping into the cylinders. It saves fuel, and also allows you to fly with the most power and the most economical power.
Once you have 2300 RPM steady, if you start to lean the mixture, you will see the RPM start to increase. Itll probably peak at about 2400RPM, and then will suddenly start to drop. Right before it drops is where youre perfect mixture setting is. So once it drops, slightly push it back in to get that peak RPM value. Then you can leave it there for cruise, or again you can reduce some throttle to bring it back to 2300… Doesnt really matter, but just get the RPM steady and again wait a few seconds or even a minute to let the airspeed settle.
Once that is complete, then gently trim the aircraft as per the instructions above. gently hold the yoke and release it as you trim until you can get it as close to 0 fpm as possible. Just be gentle and do it in small increments.
I’m also a new flight simmer. I love the 172 Skyhawk!
One of the reasons I like it is because I have worked out how to fly straight and level (ish) using trim.
At 100% throttle I have -12% trim. I usually reduce the throttle to 80% and then -8 to -10 trim. I’ve no idea if this is correct procedure but it works
I’m finding trim alternate between very sensitive and nothing. If slightly nose up, a very slight trim down might sometimes make no difference, most of the time. One more move of the same size some 15-20 seconds later and its almost fall out of the sky time. This is in C152, mostly using the mouse on the trim wheel in cockpit because I’m not trusting the buttons I have set on the joystick.
This thread has helped me a great deal completing the tutorials. Great insights! Especially the vid posted by @Machete3181. Thank you! Feeling hungry for more now
Agreed, trimming has been a bit tricky in this game. The movement seems to be all or nothing.
In FSX I mapped the trim to the mixture lever on my throttle bank which was really quick and easy to do. Almost identical to how I learned to fly gliders so felt natural.
Although I can’t seem to get this mapping to work in fs2020 so have to use the standard up /down trim buttons on the yoke which is rubbish.
Try a plane like the savage cub, it’s pretty easy.
Set some average power like 60%, trim to get the speed you want, then adjust power to get zero vertical speed. Every adjustment of either trim or power will cause a couple of oscillations of both which are bigger and harder to “grasp” the larger your adjustment so you want to do small adjustments, wait 30 seconds after a change and observe. You’ll quickly get a feel for anticipating things.
