Quote:
Originally Posted by JtD
Regarding trim, both the F4U and the F6F as tested by NACA required loads of elevator trim. Stick force changes were in the range of 30lb between 200 and 400 mph in level flight. Trimmed for neutral stick forces at low speed, pilots would sometimes not be able to keep the aircraft in a dive.
Trim as suchs seems to have been a bit more effective than it is in game.
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I use Francis Dean's
America's Hundred Thousand as my primary reference in these things, as well as Barrett Tillman's
The Wildcat in WWII, Hellcat: The F6F in WWII, and
Corsair: The F4U in WWII and Korea to supplement for 'hard knowledge' on these particular aircraft. I've also had many occasions to talk to men who actually flew these aircraft (my landlord in Coronado many years ago was a former Wildcat, Hellcat and Corsair driver, getting combat time with the Grummans in WWII and with the F4U in Korea; he introduced me to several of his wartime buddies after he noticed my extensive model collection --and bought all my blue airplanes).
On trimming the Corsair,
America’s Hundred Thousand says: “The Corsair was easy to trim out for climb. Trim changes from landing gear and flap retraction were minimal, and those for speed and power changes were quite handleable. In cruise condition the airplane could be trimmed for hands and feet off flying with little trouble. Pilots almost universally rated F4U-1C and -1D trimmability as good. In a dive, as with some other US fighters, a considerable amount of rudder trim was required to zero out pedal force which was high if this was not done.”
One the Hellcat’s trim characteristics, it says: “There were nose up trim changes with gear and flap retraction, though they were minimal, and the same was true of initial acceleration into climb. In general, there were substantial both directionally and laterally with speed and power changes, but tab action allowed trimming out control forces to zero except for the rudder. At low speed and high power rudder pedal force could not be trimmed out fully. Most pilots thought trimmability was generally good, though some made the following comments ‘Lack of trimmability”, Excess rudder trim change”, and “Aircraft requires excessive trim” (three pilots). It was noted that in a dive control forces could not be trimmed out quickly enough.
The old Naval aviators I talked to felt without exception that the Hellcat was the easiest aircraft they ever flew off a carrier deck, prop or jet. Of course, most of these old guys were raised on farms or worked at a job demanding a fair amount of physical strength (by modern standards) so a 30lb force difference probably wasn't all that excessive by the standards of the time, especially if you could
easily adjust it out with the trim tabs. To be honest, 30lbs (or a bit less than 14kg) doesn't sound like that much to me, but I spent many hours in the pool and the weight room as a younger man.
In-game, trimming out these aircraft is
not close to 'easy'.
The point is that many of the aircraft modeled in this sim are based on reports and tests done 70 years ago, and what were called 'mild' or 'light' stick or rudder forces might seem a bit heavy to the average man today. It may not be appropriate to add (over)detailed characteristics to well understood and documented aircraft that have to compete with aircraft that are modeled on older standards that cannot be verified to match the current ones.
Now if you all will excuse me, some miserable sod has released a new patch, and I have to start re-running all of the 100m tests I've done so far...
cheers
horseback
PS: During the early phase of my tests, I ran the trim all the way out in both directions on a number of aircraft, doing both rudder and elevator, as well as a few ailerons; it takes 80 button pushes in each direction from CENTER, or 160 button pushes from one extreme of trim offset to the other. By comparison, using the CH Quad, a tiny increment seemed to have much greater, but much less predictable results. Pick your poison.