Ka-50 trim is a bit peculiar

...or maybe it is just me. When I trim in UH-1 for instance, I can center the stick afterwards and it stays trimmed. With Ka-50 I have this feeling that it is always a little bit more than I bargained for. After trimming I always need to trim back a little bit? I have tried the Default option and the centre based.

I might also see it in control indicator, but for some reason the R_Ctrl+Enter does not bring it up for me in Ka-50!?!

If you are at the beginning with the Ka-50, my advice is to fly with Flight Director ON.

That setting exclude all the Autopilot concern, keeping the stability augmentation functions

The interaction of the trim, the autopilot/damping channels, the flight director, and the collective brake (sort of a trim for the collective) is IMO the single trickiest thing to figure out in the KA-50, and the one topic that creates by far the most confusion and frustration for new users.

The confusion and frustration are compounded by many well-meaning people giving incorrect information in the form of videos, posts, etc.

There are many, many smarter people than me on this topic, and the content that helped me the most was in the beginner threads on this forum. Rereading the relevant sections of the manual several times also helped.

That said... my guess is that what you may be doing is moving the stick, then pressing trim, as you would in the UH-1. Instead (assuming you have the autopilot/damping channels engaged and are not flying with Flight Director on) try pushing trim, moving the stick, then releasing the trim button.

If that doesn't produce the desired result, follow the advice of someone smarter (i.e., not me). :)

The first five posts under the "Flying the Helicopter" section here deal with trim and autopilot, and are extremely helpful:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=33527

...or maybe it is just me. When I trim in UH-1 for instance, I can center the stick afterwards and it stays trimmed. With Ka-50 I have this feeling that it is always a little bit more than I bargained for. After trimming I always need to trim back a little bit? I have tried the Default option and the centre based.

 

 

I might also see it in control indicator, but for some reason the R_Ctrl+Enter does not bring it up for me in Ka-50!?!

The way I understood trimming: You pitch down to descend and gain speed, then level up and trim.

I don't think it works like this: If you're pitching down and trimming expecting the ka-50 would stay flying like that. It would keep descending even after you trimmed.

What I noticed, if I'm understanding you correctly, that even when I'm leveled and trimmed, the Ka50 would either pitch up or down.

ah, look at this!!

Q: Having trimmed the helicopter in level flight, when I press the trimmer again, why does it affect the helicopter’s pitch and speed?

A: The flight control system is not perfect and accumulates errors in the angles/speed (depending on the mode) it is assigned to maintain. When you press the trimmer for the second time, the new angles/speed assignments include the errors accumulated since the previous trim setting. To avoid excessive pitch changes when trimming, trim often when airspeed has changed.

The best way to simulate proper trim mechanics in the simulation is through a Force Feedback joystick. However, because many flight simmers use non-FF sticks, the solution implemented is to introduce a short pause in control input when the trim button is released, to give the player a moment to recenter his joystick. The player's physical joystick and the virtual forces on the helicopter controls are then both neutral.

I don't notice the short pause when releasing the trim button!!

In the Ka-50 special options tab, you can change how the trimmer behaves, because almost nobody ACTUALLY has a cyclic that behaves like a cyclic, therefore things that work properly on the right control will NOT work for anybody using a standard joystick.

One of those options is something like "return to neutral". When you click the trimmer, your ingame cyclic freezes until you return your physical stick to neutral, then resumes normal operations. If you're using a gaming joystick, instead of a cyclic (or modified joystick), then this is pretty much what you should be using. It will not "erratically pitch" ever again.

I don't notice the short pause when releasing the trim button!!

It's ridiculously short. There is a way to increase it, I think described in the thread linked to in post #4.

Cool, copying the text here so it’s easier for others to find.

A: Yes. Open the following file: \...\Scripts\Aircrafts\Ka-50\FMOptions.lua. Look for the following line: “TrimmerTauInverse”. The lower this number, the longer the trim setting delay. Warning! Altering this value will likely result in a failure to reproduce track recordings accurately when they include a player-controlled helicopter.

In the Ka-50 special options tab, you can change how the trimmer behaves, because almost nobody ACTUALLY has a cyclic that behaves like a cyclic, therefore things that work properly on the right control will NOT work for anybody using a standard joystick.

 

One of those options is something like "return to neutral". When you click the trimmer, your ingame cyclic freezes until you return your physical stick to neutral, then resumes normal operations. If you're using a gaming joystick, instead of a cyclic (or modified joystick), then this is pretty much what you should be using. It will not "erratically pitch" ever again.

I will give this one more shot. Last time I tried it, I didn’t notice a difference. Do I need to check rudder trimmer for it to work?

It should work normally, just select the option. Keep in mind, your results will vary depending on what you're doing. Your aircraft needs to be stable when you trim, for starters. If you just push the stick forward and immediately trim before it stabilises, you'll get a bad result. Also, you shouldn't ''click'' the trimmer based on my experience. You should press and hold it until the aircraft stabilises then release. It will then ignore inputs until you return to center, then it resumes normal operation.

Here's a link to what I think is the best write-up of the Shark's autopilot and trim functions:

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_426a.html

Read up and enjoy. Until you find out how to cooperate with the autopilot you're actively working against it and flying the Shark will be a miserable time.

According to that article, the option I just described above used to be the old default, and somewhere along the way it was changed to the current system that has no delay. The results were predictably bad. Just change the option and be done with it, problem solved.