Trim order

beasly

beasly

Well-Known Member
In what order should you trim the aircraft?

I just got X-Plane-10 and am studying the Baron. Its got 3 trim controls. Machado covered this in one of his books and he was very specific about what order to trim in. I lent that book to a friend and I could not find in in the AFH.

Thanks in advance
 
Derg said:
Which axis needs trim?
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All of them.

The Baron, if I am reading my POH correctly (the dang Systems Descriptions schematic is unreadable) shows three trim wheels.

If I flow from the the lowest trim wheel to the highest, it appears to be in this order: pitch, yaw, roll.

Say, I have leveled off, set my power, and the airspeed has stabilized. What order do I trim these control surfaces?

My guess is in the order of the flow, but I don't know--and I lent my book out, so I cannot confirm it.
 
beasly said:
All of them.

The Baron, if I am reading my POH correctly (the dang Systems Descriptions schematic is unreadable) shows three trim wheels.

If I flow from the the lowest trim wheel to the highest, it appears to be in this order: pitch, yaw, roll.

Say, I have leveled off, set my power, and the airspeed has stabilized. What order do I trim these control surfaces?

My guess is in the order of the flow, but I don't know--and I lent my book out, so I cannot confirm it.
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Just set whatever's needed, as needed. :)
 
Roger Roger said:
Prolly the easiest is pitch, roll, then yaw.
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I trim any turning tendancy out with rudder first (after setting symmetrical thrust), then center the ailerons with aileron trim. But your mileage may vary.

Seriously bent airplanes deserve maintenance attention that they're not guaranteed to get.
 
I'd trim the elevator first since it requires the most control pressure, therefore, pilot's attention. Next I'd hold the wings level and center the ball with rudder trim (assuming power and props are sync'd) then move on to aileron trim.
 
Elevator > Rudder > Aileron

Why? Elevator poses the greatest physical/mental demand when out of trim

Rudder has an appreciable impact on roll when even slightly out of trim; so I choose to fix it first as it will impact my final aileron trim setting. Conversely, ailerons do not really impact yaw much at all; unless severely out of trim.
 
how could you have possibly leveled off, set power and reached a stabilized airspeed without touching the elevator trim??
 
7700 said:
how could you have possibly leveled off, set power and reached a stabilized airspeed without touching the elevator trim??
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Yes, there are 'rough' elevator trims as the airplane settles into its new steady state. before I am ready to trim for hands off.

On a level-off from a climb, I set attitude, do a rough elevator trim to reduce the pressure, let the airplane accelerate set power and props with further 'rough' trims and then let the airplane stabilize at the new airspeed. The airplane is not completely trimmed at this point as I am holding pressure to maintain attitude. At this point, I want to trim for hands-off.

Sorry for the confusion.
 
If your Baron is setup correctly, you never touch the aileron trim. It always amazed me when guys would level off and start cranking on the aileron trim, and they would never notice the ball was a full ball width out.
 
skydisaster said:
If your Baron is setup correctly, you never touch the aileron trim. It always amazed me when guys would level off and start cranking on the aileron trim, and they would never notice the ball was a full ball width out.
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That makes sense and supports my suspicion that if you 'flow' the trim controls from bottom up on the Baron, the order is , elevator-rudder-aileron. Thx
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I trim any turning tendancy out with rudder first (after setting symmetrical thrust), then center the ailerons with aileron trim. But your mileage may vary.

Seriously bent airplanes deserve maintenance attention that they're not guaranteed to get.
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Yup. When I'm hand flying I'm ALWAYS trimming for pitch.

But as far as the others, you noticed how bent the airplane is right after you rotate. Since after rotation I'm usually inside the airplane I'll notice how far off the turn coordinator is and fix that with rudder trim. But first I make sure the engines are both putting out the same power. Then I'll notice that the airplane wants to roll to one side and I'll fix that with aileron trim.

But other than that, just apply as needed.

Protip: Don't just turn the rudder trim switch and let go. Sometimes it will get stuck resulting in the rudder trim slowly working its way to the limit. Your captain will freak out and wonder what the hell is going on. Have your feet on the rudder, then adjust the trim while keeping your hand on it making sure it centers after you have gotten it where you need it.
 
skydisaster said:
If your Baron is setup correctly, you never touch the aileron trim. It always amazed me when guys would level off and start cranking on the aileron trim, and they would never notice the ball was a full ball width out.
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I'm guilty of this when tired. I'll look down 10 minutes later when everything is hunky-dory and be like DOH! :bang:
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Yup. When I'm hand flying I'm ALWAYS trimming for pitch.

But as far as the others, you noticed how bent the airplane is right after you rotate. Since after rotation I'm usually inside the airplane I'll notice how far off the turn coordinator is and fix that with rudder trim. But first I make sure the engines are both putting out the same power. Then I'll notice that the airplane wants to roll to one side and I'll fix that with aileron trim.

But other than that, just apply as needed.

Protip: Don't just turn the rudder trim switch and let go. Sometimes it will get stuck resulting in the rudder trim slowly working its way to the limit. Your captain will freak out and wonder what the hell is going on. Have your feet on the rudder, then adjust the trim while keeping your hand on it making sure it centers after you have gotten it where you need it.
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I like when you get a plane you've never flown before and the trims are centered, upon rotation you'd think you had an engine failure!
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Protip: Don't just turn the rudder trim switch and let go. Sometimes it will get stuck resulting in the rudder trim slowly working its way to the limit. Your captain will freak out and wonder what the hell is going on. Have your feet on the rudder, then adjust the trim while keeping your hand on it making sure it centers after you have gotten it where you need it.
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In the EMJ, I always manually return the rudder trim knob to neutral.
 
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