Modding Honeycomb Alpha yoke for realistic trim behavior

[stekusteku]

If you are annoyed by the unrealistic trim behavior in the sim (when trimming the pressure on the yoke don’t just disappear like in the real plane, you must also move the yoke to it’s always-the-same mechanical neutral position) you may be interested in this:

Modding Honeycomb Alpha Yoke for more realistic pitch trim behaviour - no return to always the same neutral position

Parts from AliExpress arrived: stepper motor controller, stepper motor linear actuator with 55 mm stroke (a bit to short for Honeycomb Alpha, which has about 85 mm stroke) stepper motor linear actuator with 80 mm stroke (with a weaker motor and a bit too much overall length for the Honeycomb Alpha - it may limit the travel of the yoke by a couple of mm). Prototype 2.0 is presented on the movie - unfortunately I was missing my third hand to demonstrate the trimming principle while filming, I …

[Norman999933]

@stekusteku

If you are annoyed by the unrealistic trim behavior in the sim (when trimming the pressure on the yoke don’t just disappear like in the real plane, you must also move the yoke to it’s always-the-same mechanical neutral position) you may be interested in this:

This is only true for mechanically operated flight controls, such as those found in GA aircraft. Aircraft with hydraulically powered flight controls (including FBW aircraft), have artificial feel devices which almost all require releasing control pressure and returning the controls to center as trim is applied. Exactly the same as consumer flight controls do.

[stekusteku]

I only bore holes in the sky in the small stuff like Cessnas or Tecnams, hence I consider sim trim behavior unrealistic. As I can’t afford Brunner Force Feedback yoke I decided to invest 50 euro in Honeycomb Alpha yoke mod instead.

[stekusteku]

My yoke trim mod is now operational. First flight test resulted in wow-effect! I can trim by feel now, so much like in the real life for a small GA plane! I can even feel the small vibrations when the trim motor is working!

Honeycomb Alpha yoke trim mod - prototype 3.0

Modding Honeycomb Alpha Yoke for more realistic pitch trim behaviour - no return to always the same neutral position

Parts from AliExpress arrived in 16 days. Prototype v. 3.0 which I hope will be close to the final version. The actuator fits into the case but is a little too weak, so instead of running it at the rated 9V, I use 12V. Even with 12V it’s still on the weak side, so if I start trimming for bigger forces (bigger yoke pitch pressures/deflections) the mechanism may refuse to move. Just in case it will overheat and be destroyed, I ordered two from AliExpress. They are cheap. I have also a stronger a…

[Michail71]

Nice, I’ve been wondering why something like this wasn’t already on the market. It’s kind of a good option without full force feedback.

I’m secretly wishing MSFS 2024 launches with a surprise announcement they partnered with a hardware company on FFB. But I’d bet my life savings that’s not going to happen.

[stekusteku]

Properly implemented force feedback in the yoke requires strong actuators so will be rather expensive (see Brunner yoke).
What I implemented is only realistic trim behaviour, like the one expected by real world pilots flying GA planes, without hydraulics. No force feedback moving or shaking the yoke.
I believe there are two reasons why such realistic trim is not implemented in the yokes available on the market:

1. If you aren’t a pilot, you simply may not know how the trim works in the real plane and you may think that what you have in the sim with off the shelf yokes is like the reality. It’s not.
2. Currently available sims (MSFS, Xplane) are programmed with the not realistic yokes in mind, the yokes with only one mechanical neutral position. They have unrealistic compensation built-in into the operation of trim. So if you connect the modified yoke you can not longer see the trim indicator moving in the virtual cockpit (but you can see the right yoke position in the pitch axis) and the autopilot implementation is also based on the trim compensation, so the AP is not working realistically with the modified yoke.

This mod is for simple GA seat-of-the-pants flying, exactly as I fly the simple GA plane (Tecnam P2008 JC) in the real world.

[Michail71]

Yeah, the AP really makes it tough. I do think it could be done with native software support. Microsoft did it decades ago.

I think people would get the trimming feel right away. There is something natural about it. Certainly, way easier than chasing the VSI.