Learning to Fly: The Utter Basics

This page will describe some of the most basic things in flying an airplane. I'll talk about the various moving parts of the airplane and which controls are used for them.

Directions of Airplane Orientation

Imagine an airplane flying along in a straight line. The airplane can deviate from its current path in one of three ways:

In Flight Control Surfaces

For the three ways you can change an airplane's orientation -- pitch, yaw and bank -- there are three sets of control surfaces.

In the back of the airplane are two large flying surfaces. One is called by non-pilots as "the rear wing". The other might be called the fin. The proper names for these are horizontal stabilizer and vertical stablizier.

At the very back of each of these are some moving parts. The back of the horizontal stabilizer is called the elevator. It is used to control pitch.

At the very back of the vertical stabilizer (the fin) is the rudder. It controls yaw.

The wings also have movie surfaces. In a conventional airplane, each wing has two moving surfaces along the back edge of the wing. For now, we're only going to worry about the one closest to the wing tip. These are called the ailerons. They control bank.

So imagine you want to raise the nose of the airplane. You raise the elevator, which pushes down the tail of the plane, causing the nose of the plane to rise.

If you want to shake the nose of the airplane back and forth, you move the rudder. The rudder works just like a rudder on a ship. Shoving the rudder to the left pushes the tail of the airplane to the right, which moves the nose of the airplane to the left.

Finally, if you want to dip or raise a wing, you move the ailerons.

The Controls Themselves

If you climb into the airplane, you will probably see a steering wheel (called in the airplane a "yoke". And on the floor, much like you would see in a car, are two pedals.

The yoke can be turned -- just like the steering wheel of a car -- or you can push it forwards or pull it backwards.

The pedals move opposite of each other. If you push one, the other one comes out towards you. Push that one in, and the other one moves out.

The elevator (to control pitch) is manipulated by pushing or pulling on the yoke. If you pull on the yoke, you pull the nose of the airplane up towards the sky. Push forward on the yoke, and you push the nose of the airplane down, towards the ground.

The rudder is controlled by the pedals.

The ailerons are also controlled by the yoke. Turn it left or right just like you would in a car, and the plane banks in that direction.

A Turn

So imagine you want to turn the airplane to the right. How do you do that? Because the rudder of an airplane is like the rudder of the ship, it's natural to think "use the rudder by pressing on the right foot pedal." Unfortunately, that's not correct.

An airplane turns by putting it into a bank. Then the natural lifting action of the wing pulls the airplane around in a turn. This isn't that unlike a bicycle, motorcycle or even a speed boat. Each of these banks into the turn. However, in an airplane, it's the bank that causes the turn, not the turn that causes the bank.

So, what you do is simple. Rotate the yoke towards the right -- not too far. Be gentle. The airplane will start to roll into a bank. If you continue to hold the yoke rotated, the airplane continues to bank. More and more and more until you're upside down! Let's save upside down flying for a more advanced lesson.

Instead, when you have rotated as far into the bank as you want, you center the yoke. The airplane will stop banking any further and will hold it's current orientation -- right wing down, left wing up.

And you will also begin to turn.

To end the turn, reverse the process. Rotate the yoke to the left, and the airplane begins to bank towards the left. When the wings achieve level (on their way to left wing low), center the yoke.

There you go! One turn. Not too hard.

Controls On The Ground

On the ground, everything is different. The airplane has 3 wheels (not 4 like a car). Modern airplanes have two "main" wheels under the wings and one further forward, in the center, under the engine. This one is called the "nose gear" because it's towards the nose of the airplane.

Each of the two main wheels has a brake similar to a disk brake on a car. The nose wheel does not have a break. But different from a car, the brakes in an airplane can be operated independently from each other. This means you can (for instance) apply braking only on one side and not the other. If you do so, this will cause the airplane to turn towards the wheel you're braking.

The brakes are operated via the pedals. You use your toes. Point your toes and you apply the brakes.

So, one way to do turns is through "differential braking". Point your right toes, which applies the right brake, and you turn to the right. Left toes to turn to the left.

The nose wheel can rotate just like the front tires on a car. This rotation is tied to the pedals the same way the rudder is. So, another way you can turn is to step on the pedal just like you would to manipulate the rudder.

Normally, you will do a mix of the two braking styles, depending on how quickly you need to turn. A shallow turn can be done just through nose wheel steering. More aggressive turns require differential braking (and you'll probably also use the nose wheel).

To stop the airplane from rolling, of course, simply apply both brakes together.