How do you zero-out/reset the Trim in-flight??

[Snacko]

From my searches I've read that you can press the T/O Trim button, or the FCS button, or with the gear up and Flaps up to zero out the trim.

But none of those work...

I'm testing this be just starting a flight in-air and trimming to the left/right for a significant roll.  And none of those solutions reset the trim.  I always still roll.

Has anybody figured this out??  

[speed-of-heat]

sounds more like you have an additional axis bound to roll ? 

[bfr]

I don't think there is a single magic button to re-centre during normal flight. I think it happens if you fluff a landing and retract gear and flaps but no idea if that re-centres aileron trim as well as elevator trim.

Best you can maybe do if you're struggling is use the control inputs pop-up as a guide as the current trim position appears as a +. Although it can be hard to precisely pick out if its very close to centre as its the same colour as the rest of the pop-up and gets obscured by the diamond.

[tityus]

Hi, Snacko,

In-flight side trim for unbalanced loads, right?  Trim is slow.  use the FCS page to check values.

to adjust pitch...
I'm not sure why one would want/need to "zero-out/reset the Trim in-flight".   The hornet is a friendly plane. The FCS alleviates the pilot workload a lot. In flight (gears up + flaps auto), one should push/pull the stick to position the FPV - Flight Path Vector - and, if there is enough power, FCS will trim for that attitude. 

[Snacko]

Okay, I don't have any problem using trim, I guess maybe I was thinking about some of the other aircraft/choppers that have a trim reset? I don't have any other axis assigned to roll. That's not the problem. Actually there is no problem. I was just thinking you must be a trim reset...

[tityus]

FA18Cs FCS helps a lot.

As soon as the Hornet is clean after take off, the FCS will carry the heavy load. Climbing, leveling, cruising - with all its attitude and power changes - are basically transparent regarding trim. If you takeoff and watch the FCS page you will see the numbers changing as speed and attitude varies. 

[rob10]

Ya, the Hornet mostly looks after trim after you've trimmed out any asymmetric loads (esp. after you drop a single big bomb or fire a HARM etc).  Pitch you only mess with on landing, but roll you're on your own.  And yes, you need to hold it for a bit if you drop a big bomb.

[Bunny Clark]

In the Hornet, the T/O Trim button only works when on the ground (for normal flight modes).

But, why would you want to reset in flight anyway? The reason for a reset button at all is to setup the aircraft in a known stable position for a safe transition between rolling and flying. Once the plane is flying, neutral trim is all relative. The in-flight equivalent to resetting the trim is just trimming the aircraft. Trimming an airplane is a normal procedure that every pilot learns very early, it's a common enough procedure to have a dedicated control on the stick in nearly every modern aircraft, though the Hornet's FCS means you need to trim it far less than some other aircraft. 

[Captain Orso]

This is making me crazy, and it has from the beginning.

I have an unbalanced load because I dropped a single GBU, which is 99.9999999% of the time when you use GBUs.

I'm trying to hold course while staying on target with the TGP laser, and the Hornet keeps tipping over.

I pull up the FCS page and observer while operating Trim Left Wingtip up and see in the FCS Aileron row '[up arrow] 1' in the left columns and in the right '1 [down arrow]', but only as long as I hold the trim switch. As soon as I release it, it revers to 0 0 and the Hornet starts tipping again.

Also, no matter how long I hold the trim switch, it NEVER goes above 1(!!).

Is this what everyone understands as WAD (Works As Designed)?

Edited January 6, 2024 by Captain Orso

[Joch1955]

Hi, no that is not WAD.

I use trim regularly, you just need a bit of roll trim (1-2 light presses in my case) to level out from an unbalanced load. Very easy to do. I don't check the FCS myself when I trim, just go by feel.

You should check your key bindings/game instal to make sure everything is properly setup.

Edited January 6, 2024 by Joch1955

[SickSidewinder9]

The trim setting is also too hard to see in the controls window.  The window itself is too small  because the UI still seems like it was designed for Windows XP and 1024 and doesn't upscale with higher rez.  It's also different than ever other control window.  There's a crosshair the same color as the rest of the thing.  Make every control window look like the A-4 mod control window.  It's actually usable.

[Captain Orso]

10 hours ago, Joch1955 said:

Hi, no that is not WAD.

I use trim regularly, you just need a bit of roll trim (1-2 light presses in my case) to level out from an unbalanced load. Very easy to do. I don't check the FCS myself when I trim, just go by feel.

You should check your key bindings/game instal to make sure everything is properly setup.

 

No matter what I do, either through the keyboard or through HOTAS, the results are as above, press and hold only results in 1 up 1 down and never any more.

Multiple presses results in the same thing, because as soon you I release either key or switch, it reverse immediately to 0 0.

NOTHING HOLDS, and NOTHING GOES BEYOND 1 1.

One thing I just did notice. I've only been doing this with 8*GBU-12s. I just tried it with 8*Mk-82s. I dropped a singe bomb, and... the aircraft remained 100% stable; no tipping or anything 

I'm not usually upset about success stories, but... WTF!!

[rob10]

The "FCS Aileron row" doesn't really change with trim.  I can trim to put the plane pretty much 90 degree over and it might change to 1 occasionally and definitely doesn't go back when I let go.

What does give the behaviour you're seeing is if the AUTOPILOT is in Command Control Control Stick Steering (CSS) mode.  Do you have an A/P advisory in your left DDI?  If you "break out" of autopilot (i.e. bank to hard or do something that causes autopilot to disengage) you'll be left in this mode and it will dampen all inputs and your trim doesn't work (at least not the same, I forget exactly how it works/what it does in CCS mode).  The other way you can end up in CCS is pressing the A/P UFC button then ON/OFF.  Either way you'll have the A/P advisory in your LDDI until you press the paddle switch to fully disengage it.

That might also explain why it suddenly worked with the different loadout -- you didn't end up in CCS mode before you dropped.

Edited January 7, 2024 by rob10
correcting CSS name

[Captain Orso]

Thanks for the reply Rob10.

I don't know what you mean by CCS (Command Control Steering). It's not documented in DCS for the F/A-18C.

As far as I know, A/P does not utilize the UFC ON/OFF button.

The only thing I can think of close to what perhaps you mean by "Command Control Steering" is Coupled Steering Mode (CPL). which can align with a waypoint, TACAN, or the ASL (if one is active).

I'm using none of these. I do have BALT set, but roll I am controlling with the stick. As soon as the bomb is released, the opposite wing starts dropping. Either I have to hold the stick against the wing dropping, while keeping the TGP on target so laser targeting will work. 

[Tholozor]

1 hour ago, Captain Orso said:

I don't know what you mean by CCS (Command Control Steering). It's not documented in DCS for the F/A-18C.

As far as I know, A/P does not utilize the UFC ON/OFF button.

What he's referring to is Control Stick Steering (CSS), which is present in DCS.

 

Edited January 7, 2024 by Tholozor

[rob10]

6 hours ago, Tholozor said:

What he's referring to is Control Stick Steering (CSS), which is present in DCS.

Yes, that's what I meant.  I have a problem with remembering what that acronym stands for.  I should have double checked

[rob10]

8 hours ago, Captain Orso said:

I'm using none of these. I do have BALT set, but roll I am controlling with the stick. As soon as the bomb is released, the opposite wing starts dropping. Either I have to hold the stick against the wing dropping, while keeping the TGP on target so laser targeting will work. 

Double check the the LDDI is still showing BALT (not A/P).  If you get too far out of range the autopilot will drop back to CSS mode and you'll get what I described and it will mostly still act like your in BALT so you might not realize right away.

And try pulling the paddle to make sure autopilot is off.

And of course, posting a track will help a lot to rule out user input error and maybe point back to a corrupt file in your install or a binding problem.