Maybe some irl pilots can shed some light on this for me.
Basically…which is preferred? What kind of situation would dictate using one over the other in an aircraft that has both? Is it just a matter of personal preference or are there factors to take into account before deciding to use whichever one?
Real Life
In sim
trim wheel pros -
trim wheel cons -
FWIW, pretty much none of the trim wheels available for purchase use an axis for trim control precisely because of this issue. They all generally use momentary switches and send 25-50ms long button presses when they’re turned. It’s still a big improvement over most joysticks and yokes, since the trim switches on them (especially the honeycomb alpha: one of my only gripes with it is how stiff those switches are) are tricky to hit quickly enough without getting more trim than you wanted.
What has me curious is whether the digital ones that map to an axis like the link below have the same issues as the analog ones on an axis.
Buy the logitech x56 hotas… wheel by your thumb on the throttle is perfect for trim. Its a wheel and its accessible right where it needs to be. Such a great joystick and throttle. So many buttons to do whatever you want. Fully customizable
My guess would be that the “rewritten software” they’re talking about that’s letting them bind it to an axis must integrate with the sim APIs. It likely just continually syncs the current trim setting in game to the virtual axis in the software. Looks like it’s still using a rotary encoder like all the other trim wheels, they’re just using software to solve the physical desync issue. In theory, you could do this with the other trim wheels out there too by using vjoy and a little API tool.
The problem in the sim (in GA aircraft) is that the controller moves back to the center when we trim instead of remaining at its position. So I find it more difficult to use a typical trim switch on the same joystick or yoke that I have to move back while I trim than a wheel that I can use with the other hand.
With my FFB2 the alt trim mode in XPForce does move the stick as you trim.
Sometimes (probably due to the current limited SDK) the stick real position and the position of the on screen yoke can get out of sync but you can just hide the onscreen yoke if it is an issue.
I had this problem when I was using a CH yoke before upgrading to the honeycomb. With the honeycomb the lack of feedback hasn’t bothered me since the resolution is much higher, and the center is so much more consistent: I just very gently ease off the yoke as I turn the trim wheel on the bravo.
I don’t think this is a SDK issue as much as it is just an issue that’s down to the visual models varying from plane to plane (sometimes pretty drastically). That said, I’m not sure if it would bother me even if I did have FFB since I hide the yokes by default in everything except planes with sidesticks or center sticks, and the latter is effectively hidden anyway since my view is never low enough to see the stick 95% of the time.
Yup, same here. In P3D I use FSUIPC for the right trim switch to cause very slow trim movement and the left switch for faster trim. The stronger force is a help indeed. But using my joystick mounted on the chair between my legs like in a plane I only hold it on the tip and then using the trim assigned to the hat switch isn‘t so easy. So using the trim wheel on the Bravo quadrant makes life easier.
In MSFS I haven‘t changed any assignments yet.
Thanks for all the answers everyone.
Presently, I’m trying to stay as “true” to real life as possible. Using the Bravo Wheel in aircraft that have a trim wheel, and the alpha switches with aircraft that have only electric trim.
I find both work pretty well for the most part. I will say I do find myself using the alpha switches more on approaches for small adjustments, as this allows me to keep my hand on the throttle rather than the trim wheel.
Wrong. The Saitek Cessna trim wheel uses a trim axis and works perfect. It is not motorised, so after disabling AP everything continues fine, but when you first move the trim wheel manually you may get a jump in trim, but with the wheel it is a quick matter to simply spin the wheel to retrim.
Sooooo much better than not having a trim wheel at all.
However, if someone brings out a motorised trim wheel, I will buy it. But until that day, I am more than satisfied with the Saitek wheel.
Some indication of how good they are is the price, which keeps going up in eBay now that they are not available new any more.
So, it does not work perfectly, does it? 
You have just described very well why an axis controller is inferior to a pulse ditto when it comes to elevator trim in planes with AP.
Did you just intentionally misread what I typed to try and set up some kind of “gotcha” moment or something? Because even in the quote there, I’m not wrong. Nearly everything uses rotary encoders for trim now, some old discontinued item wasn’t what I was referring to. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that your definition of perfect is a little off, either. Being a part of the DIY community, I’ve seen a fair number of people go back to rotary encoders for trim precisely because that “jump” in trim can be catastrophic in a lot of situations, especially once you get into the commercial stuff. Everybody thinks it’s a great idea until they end up losing a flight to trim desync, and the amount of work you have to put into either implementing FFB or a virtual axis isn’t at all worth the investment.
The aircraft I’m rated on don’t have a trimwheel anymore, even the backup trim is a switch …
Is the Honeycomb trim an encoder then, or an axis like the Saitek? Cheers.
It’s an encoder, yeah.
Ok so not perfect. But in practice it’s easy enough to quickly retrim in less than a second using true wheel.
And in planes with no AP, it is perfect, so flying the Cub or Cessna it really is perfect.
Personally I much prefer having the wheel, even with the AP planes. I mostly fly the TBM930 and the jump has never been a problem. So much benefit when fine trimming on approach or anywhere else.
I’m not a fan of trim switches where some engineer at a factory dictates how fast (or slow) I can move my trim. So much better to be able to throw the wheel to quickly trim. Can’t do that with a switch.
Never had that problem in real life, on most planes the trim speed is depending on configuration so retrimming on approach goes much quicker than in cruise for example. On some aircraft the trim gain is variable and depending on aircraft configuration and airspeed so the trim always has the same feel and effect on pitch. Its ideal really. On bigger aircraft with trimmable horizontal stabilizers you don’t want to be able to “fling” the trimwheel around as it can easily lead to loss of control.