Pitch vs. trim in flight phases

In rec.aviation.student Roy Smith wrote:
A fun exercise is to take your hands off the yoke completely and fly with
just power, trim, and rudder. It really teaches you to make small
adjustments and to wait for the plane to settle down before making another
change.

A few weeks ago I was out soaring on a pretty decent thermal day. It was
hot, and I couldn't get high enough to cool off, so I was getting pretty
warm in the cockpit. I was switching off between my hands, holding one in
front of the vent while flying with the other for a few seconds, then
changing.

Finally I thought, I wonder how well I can do with just my feet. So I let
go of the stick, held both hands in front of the vent, cooled them off
nicely and tried to hold my circle with the rudder. A thermal is not
exactly calm air so it didn't work all that great, but I only needed
occasional corrections with my hands.

Of course I wouldn't do this at low altitude due to the risk of a
stall-spin if the rudder inputs are too aggressive, but I was at a
reasonably comfortable altitude for recovery if that had happened.

I had a much easier scenario this past winter flying in mountain wave.
Wave is perfectly smooth so it's a great opportunity for flying hands off.
Trim it up, keep it straight with minor rudder corrections, and ride the
elevator up. I felt like an airliner pilot on that trip. There was a solid
cloud deck ahead which made it look like I was flying above a solid
overcast (it broke up behind me so I was sure of being able to get down,
though), and it was perfectly smooth. The wind noise even sounded like the
front of an airliner. It was damn cold at 12,000ft... just like an
airliner! (Haven't these guys heard of heaters? I get annoyed freezing my
ass off on every international flight.)

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon