Primary Flight Controls in Aviation

An airplane needs to turn, climb and descent. How does it do this? It uses a basic or primary flight controls to do this.These basic controls refer to the elevator or stabilizer, rudder , and ailerons. The control systems in an airplane are designed to give the pilot a natural feel and at the same time give adequate responsiveness. At low air speeds the controls of an airplane feel soft and sluggish (in most cases) , also at high speeds the controls feel responsive, firm and rapid.

Now, there is a common confusion between controllability and stability, we are going to take a closer look at both of them. Stability is the ability of an aircraft to return to its original profile of flight after being disturbed. Controllability refers to the ease with which the pilot can manoeuvre the aircraft’s and hence overcomes stability.

There is also confusion surrounding the various axes and the stability axes. The ailerons control the “roll” motion of the aircraft, the rolling motion occurs along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. The rolling motion relates to lateral  stability.

The elevator controls the up and down motion or the pitching motion, this occurs along the lateral axis. Changing the pitch changes the longitudinal stability of the aircraft.

The rudder causes a yawing motion along the normal axis or the vertical axis , this affects the directional stability of an airplane. These axes all intersect at the center of gravity of the airplane.

In the lessons to come we are going to look at the each controls surface in detail and also the various forms of stability. We are also going to discuss the relationship between the stability and the various motions of flight.

These are the basics, so what do you take from here? Remember the axes , the stability axes and the various control surfaces. This is a basic understanding of the flight controls in an aircraft, do feel free to get in touch with us by leaving a comment and for more information in aviation do call only on this frequency – My Aviation Tutor