Originally Posted by Volume
Even if you have trimmed for a speed and configuration you are burning fuel and therefore need to apply corrections from time to time, unless the autopilot does this for you. These corrections should be done by trim.
Rubbish. Try flying level during an instrument approach, or down the ILS, on the trim. You shouldn't do it and the autopilot definitely doesn't do it.
If a consistent force is required on the control column, the aeroplane is out of trim. Trim the force out, then fly it with the elevator. Tell that examiner that he is wrong. And depending on who you believe, his technique is exactly what caused the Rostov prang.
In modern aircraft trim is less and less used by the pilots actively, autotrim has widely replaced it. Another skill eroding...
My understanding is that Boeings don't have autotrim (737 STS not withstanding); they are speed-stable (the FBW adding inputs to make it so).