Attitude hold in the Hornet does NOT affect your trim.
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Thanks. I have just looked up Hall sensors which are new to me… I have always assumed its the aircraft not the stick.
Trim button(s) mapped? No duplicates? I’m planning a video on some basics (from a new person’s experience) and I may add something about this to it. Won’t be up til late tonight however. Just a, “this is how I do it” vid. Since you seem to be just starting out on the Hornet. My internet connection is slooooww so it will just be the highlights. I know that doesn’t help u now but perhaps you might get some tid-bit out of it for AR, landing, etc.
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I would have ‘beasted’ you on the ground. In the air ascerbic comments! I have a feeling I did
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I think I am probably the main problem as I do everything as I would in a real world aircraft. There do seem to be one or two differences, even compared with the two glass cockpit types I have been P1 on, one being fly by wire.
I think the main difference for you is that the AP doesn’t fly the aircraft via trim.
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Does the trim work in 100% neutral stick position? I had to add a little deadzone to pitch in roll for the F18 to make the trim work properly.
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All the autopilots I have used re-trim the aircraft. Including ‘speed’ and ‘rate of climb/descent’ modes. You can see the trim wheel going around. This F18 does things differently! I am wondering if the trim sensors on the F18 and I are fighting over the trim when I hand fly which is most of the time?
Thanks, I will try that.
Does any aircraft fly using the trim? None I have driven.
What i’m saying is the AP doesn’t touch your trim settings at all. There is another system at work when you hand fly though, which is pitch autotrim.
The way to think about pitch trim in the FBW fighters is that you don’t trim for a speed, instead you trim for g. By default, the neutral pitch trim is one g, which in a climb or descent will cause the AC to pitch up.
This is only while flying normally. Landing is very peculiar to each aircraft.
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Thanks for the comments. I am off to try it out. Tonight I am doing trim experiments and nothing else.
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I may be able to join you later. I can sit in F2 view behind you and see if your trim inputs are having an effect on your surfaces
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That would be great. I am having a quick go in an unloaded config and I will do a flight without ever touching the trim. There are other people on the net since the F18 came out clearly having the same kind of issue. Give me a quick bell when you are ready`. I will leave the laptop plugged into the flight deck so it will be ready straight away. I’ve spent the day in the garden/sun working through Highway to the Reich.
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I should be home from work around 7ish I imagine. I’ll give you a call after dinner/kids cycle is complete.
Unlike some other planes, the Hornet has no trim tabs. Part of this of course is because it’s FBW.
I do know if your stab trim is off at takeoff things can be wonky in pitch for the rest of the flight. On occasion I’ve had it so off I’ve respawned in lieu of trying to fix it!
This usually happens if you ask ground crew to significantly change your loadout, like swapping an all A2A based load for 3 external tanks or something.
The Hornet’s roll trim is always needed because I’ve found even with symmetrical loadouts it will often tend to roll left or right. Irritatingly so. Drop a single item and the roll is on like Ban Roll-on!
Nothing is worse than having say 2 of something under each wing and you intend to drop one off each and instead the 2nd to drop comes off the same pylon adapter as the first drop instead of being the first off the other wing…ROLL TIDE!
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Not entirely, BALT hold can affect the trim. If you engage BALT and then yank the stick to get out of it, or if you attempt to engage it in odd flight regimes, it tends to screw up the pitch trim. Conversely, if you engage BALT, let it settle out, and then disengage via the paddle switch, your trim should be pretty good.
The only times you should be touching pitch trim is for takeoff and landing. For roll, you’ll have to adjust it with an asymmetric loadout - whether due to initial loading configuration or by releasing ordnance. It can also be used to counter balance the aerodynamic drag from the refueling probe as well as tanking in a turn. Other than that, you shouldn’t have to touch it.
That being said, I agree the DCS Hornet is a bit odd with regard to angle-of-bank roll-off at times. Based on what you mentioned above, it could be that you’re actually over-trimming the aircraft, or there could be an issue with your controllers. You might consider adding a deadzone to neutral out some of the stick inputs.
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This sounds very much like the problems I have on occasion. I’m glad its not just me.
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Is that reflected in the sim? I can’t say I’ve ever come out of AP and have a different trim setting.
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The Hornet has two pitch trim modes . The inflight mode trims to g , as previously stated . The FCS holds 1 g in this mode and if you add a manual trim input , the aircraft will experience a continuous pitch change . Think of it as performing a very large loop or outside loop , respectively . Trim inputs in this mode are glacially slow , and i am unaware of any benefit to using it in DCS . Only in landing mode does the pitch trim work as in a normal non-FBW aircraft .
Three circumstances that cause people trim problems , particularly when cold-starting , are a failure to set takeoff trim by pushing the button on the left console and verifying it on the bit test page of a DDI ,
failing to adjust the takeoff trim setting according to weight when launching from a carrier , and taking off with full instead of half-flaps .
If one is following correct procedures and still experiences pitch trim problems , the problem is almost certainly hardware , and adding a little deadzone to the axis , as previously stated , should fix it .
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