GalinHdz
Well Known Member
Back in 2012 when I designed my all glass instrument panel, I thought I had covered every possible situation you could encounter while flying. I was quickly proven wrong when I did my first flight with my wife. As we flew along she rested her hand on the co-pilot joystick, and since both joysticks have trim control, she accidentally changed the way the airplane was trimmed. Since I fly actual IMC, this was not part of an acceptable design to me. So I re-wired the trim circuit and installed a trim selector switch. This way the trim can only be controlled by the pilot flying while the other trim is inactive. This setup worked to perfection, until last month.
I was flying with a pilot friend who wanted to do some practice approaches. He flew the airplane for about 1hr then it was my turn to do some approaches. But no matter how hard I tried I was fighting the airplane and could not keep it where I wanted. After about 1/2hr I realized the trim switch was still set to co-pilot so no matter how much I moved the trim, nothing was happening. As soon as I turned the switch to pilot, I could properly trim the airplane and everything fell in to place. I realized that unless I looked down at the selector switch I couldn’t tell who had control of the trim. The last thing I want to do while flying actual IMC is to be looking down to check the trim selector switch position. Again this was not part of an acceptable design to me. So I went back to the drawing board to come up with an acceptable solution. The process is too long to post so here is a link to a .pdf file that details my "solution".
Trim Control Selector Switch & Indicator
YMMV
I was flying with a pilot friend who wanted to do some practice approaches. He flew the airplane for about 1hr then it was my turn to do some approaches. But no matter how hard I tried I was fighting the airplane and could not keep it where I wanted. After about 1/2hr I realized the trim switch was still set to co-pilot so no matter how much I moved the trim, nothing was happening. As soon as I turned the switch to pilot, I could properly trim the airplane and everything fell in to place. I realized that unless I looked down at the selector switch I couldn’t tell who had control of the trim. The last thing I want to do while flying actual IMC is to be looking down to check the trim selector switch position. Again this was not part of an acceptable design to me. So I went back to the drawing board to come up with an acceptable solution. The process is too long to post so here is a link to a .pdf file that details my "solution".
Trim Control Selector Switch & Indicator
YMMV
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