GFC 500 yaw damper and rudder trim

[PT20J]

There have been some threads around here where the it was questioned whether the GFC 500 yaw damper would act as a sort of automatic rudder trim. I ran across this quote from Garmin on a BeechTalk thread that may help clarify the intent of the design and the capabilities of the equipment.

“An autopilot is not a replacement for a trim system. The trim system removes out-of-trim forces on the aircraft controls, and this is important whether hand flying or using the autopilot.

As you know, in some cases (e.g. pitch trim), the autopilot can drive the trim system removing the need for any pilot actions relating to that trim function when the autopilot is engaged. For any axis where auto-trim is not installed, the pilot is still responsible for trimming the aircraft, even when the autopilot is engaged.

Having said this, the GFC 500 yaw damper will automatically keep the ball centered for slight out-of-trim conditions, so it should be low effort for the pilot to keep the rudder trimmed enough for the yaw damper to do the rest.”