By Michael Jay Jones
Reaching your cruising altitude, you settle in for a nice long cross-country leg. Holding the aircraft straight and level, you adjust trim to relieve control pressures. Glancing at the turn and bank, you gently move the rudder trim to center the ball, watching your airspeed peak slightly, knowing you are facing squarely into the relative wind. You tweak them both again and marvel at the smooth early morning air. Your aircraft is flying hands off, straight and level. May all your flights start out this way, but you know what happens next!
The Problem
Some minutes into the flight you release the controls, just for a moment, to check the trim. Altitude is right on and that brings a smile to your face but wait… What?… The aircraft is in a gentle (or not so gentle) left hand turn and, of course, hands-off you are now losing altitude! A quick glance across the panel shows part of the problem. You have a quarter tank less fuel on the right side than the left, and fuel weighs about six pounds per gallon! You also remind yourself that you are the only occupant in the airplane, on the left side. You quickly bring the wings level again realizing you must have been holding them level for a good portion of your flight; extra work for you and not fuel efficient. Okay, so you switch tanks knowing the situation will improve as the fuel quantity and weight left and right equalize but what about that empty right seat?
This situation is par for the course for most Piper Cherokees and other aircraft that do not have a BOTH position on the fuel selector! Even if there is one, as in most Cessna aircraft, lateral loading is still an issue. Do you have a passenger? Maybe they weigh more than you? Do you have baggage favoring the left or right side of the compartment? Do you have a back seat passenger and, if so, which side are they sitting on? Is your aircraft rigged to fly straight and level in calm air? This issue is not reserved to hand-flying the aircraft. If you are using an autopilot, in out-of-trim conditions, it will be working overtime as well!
In Search of a Solution
As an early subscriber to the Cherokee Newsletter, published by Terry Rogers (a forerunner of Pipers Magazine), I would see a device called the “Aero-Trim.” It promised wings level aileron trim, adjustable from the cockpit in flight! I thought this was a great idea! Shortly after spotting this back in the 1980s, I attended an AOPA event in Washington DC, not too far from my home near Baltimore, MD. Aero-Trim, Inc. was an exhibitor at that event and I met the company founder, Dr. Norman Smith. “I would love to install this in my Cherokee,” I said. “But I am having the airplane painted and I simply cannot afford $400 right now.” He turned to me and said, “But now is the best time to install it, before paint!” At which point he picked up a brand new kit and thrust it toward me. “Here. Pay me when you can.” I was speechless.
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