On my ES, I take off with the trim near the center of the travel,
a couple taps on the hat switch is all that's required to go from a 140 KIAS
climb to cruise, maybe another tap or two to get in a descent near the top of
the green arc. So I have about 7 seconds of additional down trim available
at normal loading and CG. I flew my plane last summer home from OSH with a
LOT of stuff in the back, one rear seat passenger and big suitcase in the fourth
seat. My CG was still well within limits but farther back than I've ever
had it. I would estimate the trim was only about 1 second different in
position, not even one LED different on the indicator.
I installed a RAC speed control on my elevator trim when I built the
airplane, but have never turned the screw to reduce the speed. Reducing
the speed makes sense since I'm always having to tap the hat switch, and slower
movement would give me more reaction time to reach for the circuit
breaker. Unlike Bob's IVP, I have no real issues with full up trim, but
full down trim would be impossible to control. I plan on running some
tests like Bob did to see if three seconds of down trim is controllable.
Mike Easley
Colorado Springs