For a GA plane without autopilot, is it proper to use rudder trim or aileron trim when trying to trim for a straight course in the presence of crosswind?
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My understanding is that yes, if you were constantly having to use your own power to maintain the required attitude, then you should use that trim. Planes can be quite different as to how they behave in certain instances. There are some planes that are super easy to compensate with light input and others where you are looking at long periods of having to maintain foot pressure to do your climb that will just wear you out. So in MSFS, I just use it so that I can put as little input in as possible.
If you are literally asking which one of these should I use to compensate? I think that answer is plane dependent. If you had both, I’d do rudder only.
Yes, I was being literal. When flying manually, I’m always adjusting heading with my yoke using aileron, so I was curious if that means aileron trim is the “proper” way to do it. But typically in conversation I usually hear rudder trim mentioned more, so I was curious if there’s a “right” answer to the question.
In terms of what would be considered the most efficient for the plane and your body, the rudder wins. You’d use rudder first and then if necessary you would aileron trim to make up for any banking that was still being exerted upon you.
If for landing, aileron and rudder would both be used. Rudder is used to keep the nose of the airplane (longitudinal axis) parallel to the centerline of the runway, and aileron is used to move the airplane left and right over the runway to remain over the centerline. Trimming for a crosswind is a personal choice, but winds do change as the aircraft approaches the runway. Personally, I do not trim for a crosswind when flying IRL. These concepts won’t change from airplane to airplane unless you’re flying a B-52.
Aileron trim is probably something that you are only going to see in some high end GA aircraft. I never saw it in any of the aircraft that I flew, even the light twins. That said, aileron trim would be used to correct for a wing-low condition introduced by an imbalance; i.e. you have an odd number of passengers or you didn’t manage your fuel and got an imbalance that way. IOW, if the aircraft won’t track straight when you are hands-off on the controls, then aileron or rudder trim would be helpful, but you would have to ask yourself why the plane is that far out of balance.
Rudder trim can be used for the same reasons in the absence of aileron trim. Light twins usually have rudder trim for reducing control loads for engine-out cases, but I think it is somewhat rare for single engine aircraft to have it. Again, I don’t recall having it in any of the single-engine aircraft that I flew (so either it wasn’t there or I just never had reason to use it) and I never used it in normal operations with the twins. I think it is a thing for single-engine Pipers with their isolated fuel tank system.
You wouldn’t trim for cross-winds because you simply point the nose in the appropriate direction (crab) to compensate for the wind in order to get the desired ground track. For a crosswind approach, you either crab until the flare and then quickly kick the rudders to straighten the nose and drop the upwind wing (crab method), or you drop the upwind wing earlier (wing-low method) and use the rudder to keep the track straight. I prefer the former.
When I’m flying the Cessna 152 (which I understand is limited in the lateral trim options available) there’s really no way to “fly straight” with any crosswind. If I trim with elevator I can get a reasonably stable attitude (not perfect) but if I’m hands off on the yoke, I’ll just slowly start to turn in circles. It seems like rudder trim is the preferred method from what you are all telling me, if available on the airframe.
You don’t trim to compensate for a crosswind. Not the rudder and definitely not the aileron. What you do is fly a straight heading that gets you to where you want to go to. This might mean heading slightly right or left of the desired track over the ground. No trim.
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