Trims and Forcefeedback

Trim can vary by weight, but much more significantly by CG and speed. For best speed you want to be loaded at the aft limit because the stabilizer produces less downforce* at that loading than at the forward limit (the stab always produces downforce in a normally loaded conventional aircraft). Some aircraft can behave oddly concerning trim, for example the 190 which has a single trim setting (based on a given CG) for all speeds above 260mph. Some aircraft nose up sharply when flaps are lowered - some don't. That would be a function of the stabilizer size and distance from the wing and the type of flaps. This, of course, affects trim changes during flap operation. IL2 handles aircraft trim alright in a generic sort of way but my feeling flying the different aircraft is they all seem to be variations of a single flight model. I'm sure that's rather unavoidable. Rather than scoping in on the intricacies of trim I would go after much bigger fish by, first and way-up-front-and-foremost, coming up with a halfway realistic stall. The current IL2 stall makes the plane feel like the CG jumps toward the tail about eight feet during stall making spins universally almost inevitable and difficult (if not impossible) to recover from, regardless of real world performance.




*lift and downforce are drag and the more downforce a stab applies, due to the CG moving forward, the more drag it has and the more weight the wing has to carry - more lift - more drag. A typical figure for stab downforce carried by the wing is 10%. (This is why canards are more efficient - no downforce.)