[BlackbusheFlyer]

Originally Posted by minus10

To confirm it's a trim issue due to wind, use trim to get level in one direction and then bank 90 degrees and level off. You should have to re-trim.

Even better, do a 180 degree turn and see if it's banking the other way.

If it's trim due to engine torque or similar, you can try turning that off and seeing how level you fly.

If you suspect it's the controller, disconnect that and fly with keys and check behaviour.

I thought I had a problem, but after a lot of flying around in several different aircraft, I am fairly convinced it is due to the FM and that you need to trim a fair amount to maintain S&L flight. The banking I find is countered well enough on Brit fighters with a touch of rudder trim.

It could well be observer error, but I noticed that my trim changed when flying straight from over land to over sea and crossing a fair distance. I would also have to re-trim after banked turns like above.

What I would love confirmed is how complex a wind model (if at all thus rendering all my fiddling moot) is employed. Trying to use fliers' tricks like looking at the smoke from a burning wreck (I'd use domestic chimneys or power stations in rl) doesn't seem to help as it always goes straight up. Likewise, clouds do not seem to drift so no help there.

Wind really does not effect an aircraft in flight unless you get am abrupt change of direction of the wind. The aircraft is flying in a body of air which is moving, so the main effect is the track the aircraft takes over the ground.

The reason for lateral trimming of an aircraft is largely related to the gyroscopic effect of the prop. At high revs it will cause the tendency to slowly drop a wing. Too prove the point, try reducing prop RPM and manifold pressure to a slow cruise and you will find the rudder input required to maintain straight and level flight is reduced.

To solve this most pilots either hold a little rudder or preferably tweak the rudder trim. Bare in mind, every change of RPM/Man Pressure will require re-trimming the aircraft, Power, Attitude, Trim is handy to remember.

It's the way it works in the real world.