Horizontal Trim Unit

This is an item that can get you in trouble in a heartbeat.

This thing allows you to pitch the nose of the ship up and down in flight so that you won't have to hold so much cyclic pressure.

Let's say your like Donna and I weight wise, which is very light, and you are in forward flight doing about 95 mph.  If we were to set the trim so that I wouldn't have to hold the cyclic so far forward to hold this speed we would be pitching the nose of the ship down.  Now let's say we had an engine out and entered an autorotation at 65 mph.  Even with a slight amount of forward trim set on the horizontal trim fin the ship would be wanting to do a nose dive and I'd have to be pulling the cyclic back to the stops to keep the ship level on our decent.  Now at this point we're entering our flair and I don't have enough cyclic left to accomplish it because I forgot to set my horizontal trim back to its correct position on the glide,

I guess you can get the picture from that point of what the outcome would be.

That story was had an optimistic view in that I was able to glide in my auto at 65 mph giving me time to remember to set my trim back to the proper position but from what I've been told, I'd have so much trim dialed in that we would in fact at the very point of entering our auto do a serious nose dive.  At that point the WTF panic attack would enter the picture and you and the Lord would be having a very serious SHORT conversation.

There is a short article written by Tom Smith of RotorWay on this subject on on page 3 in Issue 47, Second Quarter 2004 edition of Sport Helicopter you should read and take heed of.

This is another gadget you are strongly advised to pass over having on your RotorWay