Absolutely Free Trim Wheel Controller

The more I read about flying, the more important the trim wheel becomes – and as much as I’d like to have a big, fully analogue, Cessna style trim wheel under my desk, with a needle style indicator to show how much trim I’ve got applied…it’s part of my cockpit that’s a long way off. However, you can do a pretty good job with nothing more than your mouse wheel! Here’s how.

Go into your Control settings, Control Axes, Mouse Yoke, and delete the assignments to Ailerons and Elevators – since you don’t want accidental mouse movements sending you all over the sky.

Next, go to Control Settings, Buttons/Keys, Mouse Yoke, Control Surfaces, and assign Elevator Trim (down) to Mouse Wheel (up) and vice versa. This way, the motion of the mouse wheel reflects what you see in the Cessna virtual cockpit when you look down.

To use your new trim wheel, you must be in ‘Mouse Yoke’ mode. Right click on the main screen and use the context menu to turn mouse
yoke on and off, or hit Ctrl-Y. Now, you mouse wheel acts as a very useful trim wheel. Best of all, it’s free!