Most aircraft of that era did have some kind of demarcation or marking to tell the pilot how much trim was applied; the FW 190 has its elevation trim setting in a readout on the left side panel, the Mustang's elevator, rudder and aileron trim knobs have their degrees of offset marked off (and some of this is incompletely portrayed in the game). However, most of the aircraft in the game are not given the benefit of an animated (and correctly labeled) trim knobs and wheels--and it's hard to glance down and read the ones that do work the way a pilot in the actual aircraft's cockpit could.
The point is that trim has become critically important in this sim with the improved Flight Model and physics that came with the 4.0x series of patches, and the average pilot has no clearly calibrated and marked set of trim pots on his USB controllers, and button trim is only 'felt' as an effect; you have to take it on faith that your push of that key or button was sensed when there is no clear and obvious indication on the instrument panel (okay, sometimes the rudder trim is indicated on the Turn & Bank indicator, but the state of elevator and aileron trims are for all intents and purposes invisible until you apply too much trim.
Now for people who habitually fly one aircraft type, especially those aircraft that are treated as having little or no need for extensive trim adjustment, this is usually just fine; they know from long practice how much trim to apply for their favorite ride (in most circumstances), and it is to their advantage that others flying a variety of technically superior or faster aircraft cannot get the actual performance that should theoretically be available to them. They are happy to chirp "Learn to fly!" and bask in the assurance of their own superior skills and knowledge. They have the upper hand, so they aren't about to question their good fortune.
And they aren't about to try to fly one of the trim hogs if they can possibly avoid it.
As I believe I noted about the Ki-61, it is so easy to get the best performance out of that fighter that someone facing them in the nominally superior F6F-3 Hellcat will be at a serious disadvantage because in the context of this simulation, it is very difficult to keep the Hellcat in trim, and unless it is kept in trim, the Hellcat constantly hemorrhages its energy, and almost always ends up low and slow, an easy target. I haven't spent a few dozen hours in the F6F, but I have spent about three or four hours taking it through its range of speeds and trim settings. As I've pointed out earlier, they are inconsistent--you need to add nose down trim at one speed range, and at a somewhat higher speed range, the nose abruptly tucks down and you need to apply nose up trim. The FW 190A also exhibits this behavior, as well as the P-47 (of the aircraft I've tested so far).
I doubt that the real aircraft did this--but I also doubt that these aircraft needed this much trim adjustment in proportion to aircraft like the Ki-61, the Ki-43, the La-5 series, or literally unknowable fantasy flight models like the Ki-84 and the J2M.
Letting the pilot know if his trim input was sensed and how much trim he has applied with a momentary message is the easiest way to remedy the problem.
cheers
horseback
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