I spend most of my flight time lately with the Milviz Corsair. Not an easy bird to land and no auto pilot. Getting the rudder trim and aileron trim set prior to landing requires me to pause the simulation, get down to where I can see and manipulate the trim wheels with my mouse, do a few other things then continue with the landing. This is not very realistic. Neither is doing it with buttons and switches on the HOTAS but at least I wouldn’t have to pause the sim. So what I would like to do is push a button or flip a switch that would set the trim to 6 degrees. I know how to set a switch to get it back to center. I have that set up already. In MSFS in the Controls there are options called Set Rudder Trim and Set Aileron Trim. These sound like what I am looking for but I don’t know how to set it to do what I wand it to do.
Does anyone know how to do this?
‘Set’ means that, when you engage that hotkey, it’s as if you put your fingers onto the control wheel/knob/button in the cockpit. You then use another input (mouse/joystick/hat) to move that control up or down/left or right).
Thanks for the reply but that doesn’t sound any better than just clicking on the trim wheel then using my mouse wheel to turn the trim wheel. And I still have to actually see it so I know when it gets to the setting I want. What I need (want) to do is setup a button on my controller that will set the trim to a certain degree when I press it. Is that possible? Has anyone done this and can help me with it?
Unfortunately, I have not found a keybind that will snap-to an elevator trim setting. I can’t even find a keybind to center/zero the elevator trim, which is something I would like. There’s a keybind to center rudder trim, however.
The trims I am most concerned with are Aileron and Rudder. I do have the rudder centering set to one of my throttle switches. The elevator trim, up and down, I also have set to a switch on the throttle. Setting all these trims for take off is no problem because I’m not trying to do it while flying. I think I saw a center command for the aileron trim, but I don’t have that setup yet. Flying these WWII warbirds is a lot of fun but trying to get this thing trimmed for landing while flying and preparing everything else for landing is tricky. If it was a real airplane and you knew where things were you could just reach down to it and make the setting without actually having to look down there for any length of time. I sure wish they had provided some mechanism to push a buttom or switch and set a trim to a specific setting.
For landing, the correct approach rudder trim setting will vary based on crosswind. It should be set to neutral or set to maintain alignment with the runway heading, not to a specific degree setting. The elevator trim will also vary based on the current aircraft weight (payload and fuel remaining), the current CG location and the flaps setting, and it should always be set to maintain a desired approach airspeed, not to a specific degree setting. Aileron trim also should be set to neutral or set to maintain wings level after setting the rudder trim. Use the stick/yoke to maintain alignment with the runway centerline during the approach.
I have rudder trim (Button 11,12) and aileron trim (Button 9,10) mapped on my Honeycomb Alpha.
I can’t figure out how to map anything that will ‘snap’ those trims back to center.
You’re not supposed to “snap them back to center”. They’re trim controls, not main rudder and aileron controls. For example, with a crosswind, set the trim to keep flying straight, then change rudder with the rudder pedals. Same with all “trim” controls. You set them so you’re flying neutral, then you use the yoke and rudder to change them. Using trim to steer, bank, etc. isn’t their purpose.
I get that. Maybe I’m missing an indicator in the cockpit. When I trim, I can’t tell how much I’m trimming. I trim as needed, but sometimes I trim too much, then overadjust, and end up not knowing what the trim is set to. I can see the elevator trim angle indicator, but not the aileron or rudder.
The purpose of snapping back to center is so I can recover from overtrimming and get back to a known start point.
So is there a button on the Alpha yoke (or the keyboard) that I can do that on my Bonanza G36?
There is a command to reset the rudder to neutral. I have it mapped on my throttle to reset my rudder trim when flying the Spitfire and Corsair. On those planes you have to set rudder takeoff trim to go straight down the runway. Once I get in the air I just hit that switch and rudder trim goes to neutral. There is no command for resetting the aileron trim.
Unfortunately, the internal view varies between cockpits.
On the external view, you can see the trim angle on the right-hand side. As for the ailerons and rudder, you can check these visually on the external view, same as you can confirm whether your gear is up or down.
As you can see, the gauges are pretty darned small at 8192x2160, which is why I began flying in-cockpit (at that resolution, the external gauges are SMALL, and the cockpit gauges aren’t nearly as small as at 4192x2160 - and I expect the situation to be just as bad when I get the second Arc 770 LE and go to 8192x4320 - but the VIEW!)
This product, when set to “Cessna”, shows both the engine rpm and wing flaps.
Sorry, that’s all I’ve got at the moment. Maybe someone else has more ideas?
I see that in my Bonanza G36 cockpit, I can mouse over the aileron trim knob, which is located to the right of the elevator trim wheel, and see the current trim setting, zeroing it with the mouse if need be. So that works for me.
As for rudder trim…the only way I know that I can get a visual of trim status is to go to an external view behind the aircraft and trim the rudder to the center position.
I still have no idea what button can be mapped on either the yoke, keyboard, or throttle that will ‘snap’ the rudder back to center.
Thanks Barbra.
In Control Options Under my throttle settings is Flight Control Surfaces then Trimming Control Surfaces then Reset Rudder Trim. This will reset your rudder trim to 0. I fly mostly just the WWII warbirds. With the Corsair for example the rudder trim is way down on the left side of the cockpit and way back. To adjust this trim by hand while flying, especially right after takeoff, requires taking your eyes off the road for quite a while. In one of these warbirds things can get out of hand pretty quick so that’s why I like the reset. I wish there was also one for the aileron trim but no.
You can probably do it with something like Spad.next if you’re willing to pay for a 3rd party application. I’ve done that sort of thing for other controls and systems. You can create scripts to set just about any variable that the sim exposes (including rudder and aileron trim) to any value at the press of a button.
Hello good simmers…
I just posted a solution to easily bind 3 keys to the 3 trim ( Aileron, Elevator, Rudder)
and set the trim to 0 (i.e centered)
Using this set up it would be just a matter of changing the set value in the macro to a proper value other than 0, if you so desire…
SET TRIM to 0 Finally a Solution - Elevator - Rudder - Ailerons
Thanks for finding a solution and putting it out there for us. I’ll take a closer look and give it a go.
You never ever adjust rudder trim due to crosswind.
When crabbing, the rudder is neutral and when using the side slip method you want rudder trim to neutral as well.
The only time you need rudder trim during the approach is when flying with asymmetric power due to a shutdown engine.