Cyclic Trim button

I am lucky enough to have the full Komodo Sim Huey kit, and the cyclic is hydraulic damped free moving without any centre spring.

In the Mi-8 options there are several trim options, and I have chosen the non FFB, no centre spring one.

My question is, what does the trim button now do.

As far as I understand it, in the real helicopter, your move the cyclic (pushing against forces) and pressing the trim button removes those forces so that the stich position stays where it is, but there is no longer a force to push against.

On the sim rig, the cyclic moves to a position, but as it has no force feedback, there are no forces acting against it, and removing your hand from the stick, just leaves it there. So what happens when I now press the trim button?

I am a bit confused (easily done) :huh:

If I have understood it correctly, the "no FFB, no centering spring" is for when you have a very well balanced joystick/controler so you can leave it at whatever position you like and it will stay at that position without FFB. It's unfortunately not very well documented, there exist a thread (don't remember where) that shows how some of the developers modified a joystick with weights and friction to achieve this stay-in-place-without-FFB behavior.

I believe the default trim optio would be the best for you (press when changing attitude, release when settled, return joystick/controler to center rather fast). I have that for my PFT Lynx.

Cyclic Trim button

My cyclic is balanced and stays in place when you let go. It has no centre position.

So what is the point of pressing the trim button when the joystick already stays in place?

If you dont need trim then don't use it. The trim in game is designed for generic joysticks with spring centring. Your lucky enough to not have to use it. I went from stiff warthog to 15cm extension and the big spring removed so was like your setup in that regard. It makes for much smoother flying and I never found any difference when changing the settings from trim to no trim and no ffb options

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As far as I understand it, in the real helicopter, your move the cyclic (pushing against forces) and pressing the trim button removes those forces so that the stich position stays where it is, but there is no longer a force to push against.

 

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Just a correction, IRL, you push trim release, move the cyclic (without to push against forces) then release the button. Your stick will stay in position.

Thanks for all the replies. I just couldn't work out why the developers had put in an option for non-ffb no-spring when it doesn't do anything.

It makes a noise in the cockpit, so I suppose it is a placebo. I might use that button as the engineer/autopilot reset instead

I don't fly this bird or the Huey much, and don't use the autopilot yet, but for the KA-50 you need to have the helicopter trimmed before applying autopilot, hence use the button. I assume that's valid for the Mi-8 to?

Yes, Trimming does set the desired heading pitch & altitude for the AP channels, not just release the forces on the cyclic.

On the Mi-8? It shouldn't. The pitch and roll channels just try to hold the current pitch and roll attitude. Trim button has no effect on that, or at least it shouldn't. On the Mi-8, the trim button only removes the trim spring force for the cyclic and pedals.