Hi everyone.
I’m new to MSFS 2020, and new to flight sims in general really. I’ve used iL-Sturmovik and go as far back as the old MS Combat flight sim (was it the 90s?) but have never really got into them due to a lack of decent controllers. However, having been an avid Elite Dangerous player for three or four years I’ve ended up with a X-56 throttle and a Virpil Warbird base with the Constellation Aplha (right hand grip.) I’m also a full time VR user for all of my sims (Elite, AMS2 and AC) and thought it time to learn to fly. With decent controls and age on my side I’m quite prepared to go slowly and learn from the ground up, so to speak.
I’ve started off in the C152 and have bound controls to what seems to make sense at the moment, though if this is anything like Elite (I.e a steep learning curve ) I realise that my binds will no doubt change as I get more experience and a better feel for things.
I’m having an issue with my elevator trim at the moment. Ideally I’d like to use either the pinky wheel on the throttle or the top thumb axis wheel. At the moment either one seems like a binary input. I’m constantly having to make adjustments even when I’ve set my throttle and attitude - my elevator trim then pitches me up or down quite dramatically no matter how small my input is with either bind setup. I’ve calibrated my throttle and am aware of the sensitivity tab in-game but nothing seems to allow me to make small, incremental changes that offer a controllable feel to the trim.
I’ve read, and watched YT tutorials, that say how trim is a near constant activity, certainly after every main input but I’m wondering if I’m missing something with regard to sensitivity, best binding practice or perhaps I’m simply expecting things to be too easy?
If anyone has any advice, suggestions, better binds or even if there’s a thread regarding this that I’ve missed I’d be eager to know more.
Apologies for the long post, but I thought I should introduce myself a little too.
Many thanks
I also have the alpha and usually bind my trim commands to the hats on the joystick.
Example for msfs2020 would be.
Elevator on the 3 way hat (forefinger)
Rudder - one of the hats on face of stick
Aileron - the other hat on face.
(I use the hat that sits on lower/thumb rest side for forward/back camera target at present.)
Where the command exists I usually map a “trim reset” to the same hat. This is why I don’t have multi functions on the same hat. I want “left + right” to control the trim and “up” to reset it as I find in the heat of the moment that I firm “up” is easier to do 100% than a mid point press.
I usually try to keep the same functions mapped to the same location across games, so that’s also how my IL-2 trim looks.
just to check, did you bind the elevator axis??? and you may need to really lessen
the sensitivity, just try it out, since it can be done on the fly.
eventuallly you may want the x56 throttle box too…
Hi MagnusArtorius!
Trim in flight sim is quite a poor compromise. I use the buttons on top of my joystick, so just a binary input anyway. Elevator trim is a bit of a trial and error affair. Of course in a real airplane, you can feel the control yoke/stick pressure ease off as you bring the plane into trim … altogether a much easier and more natural affair and as I remember from way back in the day, I never had the same issue of chasing the trim like in the simulator.
I don’t really know how developers can improve this without the feel. There was quite a bit of excitement with the introduction of force feedback controllers in the '90’s, but it never really worked (at least not for me). You can assign an axis to elevator trim in MSFS … I haven’t tried that - I don’t have enough controller axes left to do that at the moment!
Good luck!
Strange, I have an X-56 and I bound elevator trim up and trim down to the throttle pinky wheel and it worked very well - as well as it can in a sim with no force feedback on the yoke anyway.
What did you bind to each of the pinky wheel directions? (It pulses one of two buttons continuously while being scrolled depending on the scroll direction)
Thanks for the replies.
I’ve found that using @somethingbrite’s suggestion of using the joystick’s hat switches is working well, this may be in conjuntion with binding ‘set trim’ to one of the buttons too. Whether this is little more than a workaround or an intended trim action I don’t know (but am happy to be informed.)
@wcoesel - I have bound the elevator axis when using the axis rotary switch on the top of the X-56 throttle but that seemed to make the thing way too sensitive. I’ll have a play around with those settings and see how it works out.
***E1ephant42 - I had the pinky rotary button set so that rolling it back toward me would pitch up and away from me would pitch down. This did work, but was so slow as to be pointless…again, this may well be sensitivity settings which I’ll have to play around with.
It doesn’t help that I’m somewhat overwhelmed by the complexity of even the most basic aircraft, ATC comms and learning about the Nav systems. I’ve set some things to Easy/Auto so I can concentrate on the basics and pick those up once I’m happy I’m not going to nosedive into my house (obviously, job number one - a flyby of my house 
EDIT: Apologies, it seems new users can only mention two people in a post and no more.
Try a force-feedback yoke and you can feel the trim, although not as good as in RW aircraft. I use the Brunner yoke from Switzerland.
New to flight sims and new to the forum. I’m using MFS2020 to help supplement my flight training. Regarding trim, is there a way to adjust trim sensitivity. I have the Bravo throttle quadrant and to make any noticeable adjustment to the trim you have to make several revolutions. Completely opposite of what I experience in a Cessna 172, where a little goes a long way.
Good question. The difference between using the mouse to adjust the trim wheel itself and using a binding to a button or axis is huge.
Congratulations on learning to fly IRL - something I’d love to do myself, maybe one day.
Just wondering, how well is your FFB yoke working in MSFS? Can you feel the force? Can you activate autopilot and watching your yoke move on it’s own?
Yes I can feel the force, but its not as strong as my Piper Warrior II. When I start an engine the yoke moves immediately back as the breeze from the prop lift the elevator. And yes, when in AP mode the yoke moves. It takes a sharp yank on the yoke to disengage the AP. I have all of the Saitek flight instruments, multi-panel, switch panel, radio panels, etc. All work well in MSFS as does the Brunner yoke, the Crosswind pedals, and the virtual-fly TQ.
Thanks for the info, I will get one this summer
I’m not seeing the proper response in the thread.
If you are binding a “Wheel”, in other words, an analog axis as opposed to buttons, you’ll want to use an elevator trim “axis” to bind too it. There are two different ones, one works, one doesn’t.
I’m not at my game computer right now, but you’ll want to bind the wheel to the
“Elevator Trim Axis -100% - +100%”.
This will act as an axis for the trim and works great. The other elevator trim axis choice works in a binary manner instead with an analog axis, as you suggested. I don’t know what that trim axis would be good for.
I hated using buttons and the elevator tirm + and - keystrokes for the elevator trim, and realized I could use the throttle on my Logitech ExtremePro 3D for the elevator trim axis, and flying is soooooo much easier now. Hopefully that wheel you are talking about is the same sort of thing, with maybe even more range than the throttle axis on my joystick I am using now.
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I’ll try that when I’m next in-game, thanks.
I feel like I’m going to wear out the hat button with the amount of trimming necessary sometimes - a wheel on an axis would be perfect if I can get it set up correctly.
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I often wonder if the people who complain about twitchiness and flight model in general, if they’re aware of how important trim is to flying, and how horrible the normal trim interaction is in FS with pressing +/- buttons all the time… When you can’t quittteee get that in-between trim postion 
Is this it? This was the default.
Thanks I’m getting ready for my instrument check ride. Flying is easier in real life than the sim, I find. I’m trying to get an ILS programed so I could shoot approaches. I’ve only been able to get the final approach fix in and the GPS doesn’t move to the next point on the approach.
