While in the air, a pilot's foremost concern is for control of his aircraft. Flying miles above the ground, hundreds of miles per hour, a pilot needs to be completely in charge of his aircraft, and what it is doing. Pilots have a variety of tools at their disposal, for use in maintaining direction of the aircraft. Each tool operates in a different manner, in order to help the pilot control all axes of rotation.

In this section, you will learn about the three features of an aircraft which control its motion.

• Ailerons - Attached to the trailing edge of wings, the ailerons control rolling movement of the plane.
• Elevators - Positioned horizontally at the trailing edge of the tail assembly, the elevators control pitch.
• Rudders - Rotating vertically at the trailing edge of the tail, the rudder is used to control yaw.

All three methods of controlling the position of a plane operate on the same principle, discussed within this section, with slight differences. However, the actual mechanism by which each feature of the plane operates varies significantly.

An important thing for pilots to be aware of is the necessity to use all three features when steering the aircraft. For example, if a pilot wants to turn left, he must do four things at the same time:

• Press on the left rudder pedal, causing the rudder to turn to the left.
• Turn the yoke to the left, raising the left aileron and lowering the right one.
• Pull back on the yoke, raising the elevators in order to increase the angle of attack, and increase the lift.
• Push the throttle, raising the thrust in order to compensate for the thrust lost by changing the plane's direction.