As the autopilot is primarily for cruising, there’s not a lot to remember.
I haven’t experienced any issues with trim on A36, C152, C172, Caravan, TBM or Citation CJ4.
Use the AP’s vertical speed function. There’s no autothrottle, so you’ll have to manually adjust the throttle to maintain the same speed while climbing or descending. And if you maintain the same speed, there’s no pitch trim change. Or disengage the autopilot, hand-fly to the new altitude, and re-engage the AP.
Many thanks … a lot clearer now
No worries. It helped me understand it better, too!
Aircraft with electric autopilot-controlled trim shouldn’t have the same issue. The AP should be continuously re-trimming for changing speed, weight, CG, etc, so there are no pitch surprises when disengaging the AP.
and the C172 is electric ?
It’s not. So I think it would have the same issues, but it’s probably not modeled properly in MSFS. I’m not familiar with the C172 autopilot, though.
Well, this thread makes me feel like one of the lucky ones. I have both a Sidewinder FFB stick (along with XP Force running to get most of the right behaviors) and an old Saitek Cessna-style trim wheel, and every plane I’ve flown so far trims up nicely. Whatever fudging they are doing internally doesn’t really seem to have much impact on how the stick changes its neutral position as I change trim. Plus, the feeling of the prop wash on the elevator as you rev up on a trail stagger is fantastic for being able to finely control its balance on the mains.
I swear, if a company came along about now with decent new FFB kit that didn’t cost a fortune, during MSFS 2020 mania, they would make gobs of money …
I have experienced trim on the Baron pegging at full nose up (22 degree) and such a slow ability to roll in nose down trim that almost impossible to maintain control.
Im having the same issues with Elevator trim. Game downloaded on the 27th Nov. Currently have assists all set to hard/real life. The C152 trim seems stuck at neutral. I have a saitek trim wheel which is set up ok in the controllers and I have tried resetting the keyboard bindings but the trim still stuck at neutral. If I move the trim wheel in game by grabbing it with the mouse, you can see the wheel move but it bounces back to neutral as soon as I release it.
Found my saitek trim wheel appears to be the problem even though it looks as though the sim recognises it ok in the controller set up and sensitivity menu. Trim works ok without trim wheel plugged in so will look at posts for saitek issues and post once sorted.
fixed… I set my axis to 0-100% by mistake. Have changed it to -100% to 100% now works are treat.
Since update 7, elevator trim seems to be non-functioning. This is on a Cessna 152 and a Diamond DA40TDI. I have ‘Elevator trim (up)’ and ‘Elevator trim (down)’ mapped to buttons but nothing at all happens. Is this an update 7 problem? Anyone else experience this?
I works for me in the King Air … but I did not try other aircraft recently.
(I also have the button actions assigned, no trim axis)
Hi N66722c.
First many thanks for the explanation, it does make sense. Just to check. The spring buttons do not ‘set’ the trim, but ‘temporarily’ move the elevator, and when released the elevator moves back to the neutral position. Have I got this bit right?
So if instead of the buttons, if the cockpit trim wheel is moved, with the mouse. The elevator should maintain the trimmed setting. Is this correct?
Many thanks Noel
close… the buttons should move the the elevator trim either up or down, till they reach a limit. There is only movement when the buttons are being pressed. There is NO return to neutral position when you let go of a button.
The wheel turns when a button is being pressed (until the trim reaches its limit)
If button is not being pressed, the trim wheel remains stationary
(unless moved by the mouse, or the AP is on, and is adjusting the trim)
Thats really all you need to be aware of … the details of how te Sim actually FLight Models the trim, and the effect of having a "spring Loaded: centering Joystick, is an additional complication, but does not alter the basic trim control with buttons or a trim wheel.
Hi thanks for the reply. So as there is nothing wrong with actual operation of the trim, either using the Bravo buttons or the ‘cockpit’ wheel the problem of getting the plane (C152 as its basic) to fly level is probably down to the effect the bindings of the switches on the yoke are having.
I’ve given up using buttons on the yoke, the adjustment is so coarse that achieving level flight is neigh on impossible. Using the mouse to control the trim wheel is easier and after a few corrections achieves level flight.
Thanks for you help. Cheers Noel.
Got the Saitek X-55 here. Have unbound all elevator trim keys except those on my throttle. I’ve tried binding the trim to a number of different inputs but this doesn’t seem to affect the end result. Trim seems to start climbing (nose up) and maxes out. I have to fight it mid-flight to try and correct the issue.
In once instance, I noticed that the trim seemed to be linked to my Stick being pulled back (nose up) which seemed to have the Trim climb in sync with the % my stick was pulled back. I immediately double checked all trim bindings and found that nothing except the Throttle and Num Pad keyboard shortcuts (Default keyboard profile) were bound. Removed the keyboard bindings just to be sure and same issue still.
It’s a little disappointing to see that OP posted in September last year yet I can find no acknowledgement that the bug exists except for in these types of forums where multiple people are experiencing the issue and are pretty much hanging up FS2020 until someone acknowledges and provides explanation or a fix for the issue.
Also have the trim problem. But to me it happened after enabling the AP in Cessna 172. When I enabled the AP, it went completely nose up. My joystick trim would not work. I was only able to fix it by manually going in the cockpit and with the mouse turning the trim wheel until it finally level the plane.
Not to change the topic, but the Cessna Skyhawk 172 AP does also have other issues.