109 elevator trim

[Robo.]

Originally Posted by 5./JG27.Farber

When Osprey was talking to me about it on Steam he said 109's where using it to out turn him.

Oh yes, you can outturn a Hurricane if you want, because you can apply nose-up trim very very fast. It is very useful and responsive in other manoevers, too - vertical or horizontal scissors etc... Do you need to hit a Spitfire that is breaking hard while you're diving on him at 450km/h? Apply full nose-up trim and you'll have plenty lead on him. This probably applies to all aircraft, and as you can do things no one could do in so called real life, this is certainly wrong. The 109 is specific because of the trim wheel design and purpose (e.g. pilot was not able to achieve full nose-up trim position so fast, which is more of a HW issue restricted via antropomorphic controls already.)

Originally Posted by 5./JG27.Farber

So... How long should it take? -Thats the real question. Bearing in mind you dont use all of it. Lets say half, how long does it take to roll out half of it?

I don't know. It took 4 complete revs (or cca 5 3/4 revs) of the wheel to get from full up to full down trim. (It took about 22-25 seconds to deploy flaps fully (see varratuu's video again, he was refering to the wheel operation))

I can only assume that it was full 2 revolutions from neutral position to full up. Now watch the animation (less than one rev) and the immediate effect we have got in game. Neutral position (0), +3 was nose down, -8 was full up - assuming the 0 is neutral for cruise flight, it would be even more than 2 full revs to get from neutral to full up, it would be more like 3 and half full revolutions. I would need to verify this and do some more research but I am sure someone will have that knowledge.

Now try to take a Hurricane and do the same, the trim wheel is very similar in fact as was typical for many aircraft of that era - and have a look at the trim indicator and wheel animation. Response is pretty similar. It's not too bad, there is even this small delay modelled, sort of.