He said it dove to the ground immediately, before he had a chance to grab the stick. I think he had it improperly trimmed. I trim my Decathlon to the R in "elevator" for takeoff, which is an inch behind the neutral mark. If trimmed to the tab, it would take a LOT of back pressure at slow speeds to keep the nose up.Had to be something else wrong. In most of these airplanes you can let go of the stick almost anywhere without dying.
I saw that post and would have to agree that it was not trimmed properly for that to happen that way. Otherwise an inconvenience.He said it dove to the ground immediately, before he had a chance to grab the stick. I think he had it improperly trimmed. I trim my Decathlon to the R in "elevator" for takeoff, which is an inch behind the neutral mark. If trimmed to the tab, it would take a LOT of back pressure at slow speeds to keep the nose up.
Since I use 80 for climb and then throttle back to 1900 as I reach TPA (expected to be part way through crosswind) and fly the downwind at 80, I don't touch the trim until abeam the numbers, when I reduce power to 1100 and put in most of the remaining nose up trim (all of it if it's calm and I want my approach at exactly 60).Our J3s can be flown in the pattern without touching the trim. I can let go almost anywhere without problems. As for the ACA airplanes, CIGAR TIPS has a T for trim. Set it for take off, of course, like Ed does.