"Jay" wrote in message
om...
I've noticed that a lot of aircraft put trim tabs on the trailing
edges of the normal movable control surfaces. Wouldn't this just
deflect the control surface to neutralize the forces and not affect
much change except drag? It seems like you'd want to put the trim tab
on the fixed part of the wing/stab/vert, that way its pushing the
airplane instead of the flight controls in your hands. I've noticed
some articulated mechanisims on some aircraft (anti-servo) but this
seems to be a complicated way to make up for the fact that the tab was
put in the wrong place to begin with. What am I missing?

I believe you are missing the point. The tab was not placed in the wrong
place.
The trim tab drives the surface. When you drive the surface to a new
position,
it creates forces in the same manner as if you had used the controls to
place it there.
Trims are made to unload the controls in the pilots hands, so not placing
them
on the surface would be futile. Scott.