Hey.....Welcome to the real world......"T" stands for "Trainer" It wasnt' meant to go straight and level all by it's self!
It's great for Aerobatics.
As for the gauge refresh.....I've never seen that with mine.
I dont' know what your specs are,But if you have good setup they should be running smooth as silk?
Actually, some reviews I read before I purchased them mentioned the Mentor's problem with VC gaugues... It's not just me. The 182 is fine, but the mentor is terrible for gaugues in the VC.
As for it being a trainer... Yeah, but that's no excuse for some of the trimming issues. The only one of the three trim controls I can reliably use in VC is wing... nose is only selectable in a tiny little area of the wheel, very hard to get... And the rudder control just doesn't exist in the VC, all it is is a textured blob. And some quirk with the Carenado trim controls (I noticed this in the 182 as well) only lets you see the amount you have them trimmed in the VC... Mouseover in 2D cockpit doesn't show you (-2.1) type information. Thankfully the 182 at least has graphical indicators that are halfway functional for that, but the Mentor doesn't.
Actually, as far as stability, it's pretty stable in flight. Until you introduce mother nature, of course.