"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
Cubdriver wrote:
On Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:55:16 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

So how do you know when you need it?

Plane doesn't fly straight & level. Wants to lose altitude, less often
to gain altitude. Or in a climb, wants to climb at an angle
approaching stall. Or in a landing, wants to dive instead of glide.

The great thing is to be able to hold the stick so lightly that your
fingers aren't really touching it; the plane flies itself.


The thing MXMANICDEPRESSIVE won't ever see with his simulator is
how heavy the control forces will get with an out of trim aircraft.

I forgot to set the trim to neutral once before takeoff in a C-172
(accidently skipped over it on the checklist), with my instructor on
board... started down the runway, hit 55kts, and went to pull back to
rotate, and was like "Wow!!! This is a lot heavier than normal!!!!" kind of
like when you do touch and goes, and kind of thought to myself that my
instructor had one too many doughnuts lately... Got the plane off the
ground and climbing... Then I guess my brain was quickly rationalizing what
could cause it to be so heavy, and glanced down and saw it had a fair amount
of nose down trim (probably from the person who landed it before me), and
went "Oh Crap!!!... forgot the trim!!!", and quickly took out a bunch of the
nose down trim... :-) Was much easier to fly then. :-) You can bet I
check that now everytime before take off. :-) You don't get this
experience (how hard it is to pull the plane off the ground) in MSFS, and
same for steep turns, first time I did steep turns (in C-172) I was shocked
at how hard you have to pull on the elevator to maintain altitude, it seemed
like it was probably at least a good 10 lbs, probably more.

Reason I say it felt like when you do touch and goes, is you typically don't
have time to reset the trim during a touch and go and kind of have to
wrestle the plane off the runway and trim during the climb... Or at least I
was not taught to reset the trim during a touch and go (while rolling on the
ground), but taught to trim while climbing out, probably because if you
reset it while on the ground you actually have to look down and a lot can
happen in those few seconds you aren't looking out the windshield, and
during the climb you can trim without having to look at the trim wheel and
beside if you set it you will more than likely have to retrim on the climb
anyway.

Wade Hasbrouck
PP-ASEL
http://spaces.live.com/wadehas