Since January I’ve had an ongoing email conversation with Vance Atkinson about his venerable EZ Electric Trim System.  Vance’s pitch trim system is similar in a vein to the Strong pitch system in that it acts both in a linear motion, and some what parallel to the control inputs… or at least much more oblique than a Davenport leaf spring pitch trim system.  From what I’ve read though, and not having personally flown behind any of them, the Strong system has had both good and bad reports.  The Davenport system seems to get high marks, but it’s significantly heavier and in my configuration would need to be mounted on the center instrument panel leg post, and I want to free up that space for other components while of course saving weight.  Moreover, the Atkinson pitch trim system uses an aircraft quality actuator and the spring assembly is made of aircraft grade metals.

Below is a picture of Bernie Siu’s Atkinson pitch trim system that he installed in his Cozy. As can be seen, the trim assembly mounts out of the way on the side of the fuselage just forward of the panel, and connects to the elevator control rod via rod end.  Bernie has a great detailed explanation of his experience with both the Strong and Atkinson systems here.

So, after some discussions with my building buddy Marco, we decided to pull the trigger and make a couple of these guys.  As per usual, I provided the financial backing and he provided the talent!  (ha!)  I ordered the materials and hardware required for two of these suckers and had it all sent to Marco’s production shop of magic and wonder.

Not surprisingly, within short order (mere minutes most likely!) of receiving the required stuff, Marco had worked his machinist’s magic on his lathe and mill to give us the beginnings of two beautiful Atkinson EZ Electric Trim Systems.

Of course, once again, Marco has done some masterful work and produced some amazingly beautiful machined pieces!   (Bravo my friend!)