Your Flying flivver 73 



side or the other, and makes the nose of the plane swing 

 toward the side on which pressure is applied. 



The banking, or rolling, motion of the plane about its longi- 

 tudinal axis is controlled by the ailerons on the wings. A side- 

 ward movement of the stick operates the ailerons, causes the 

 air to push one wing down and the other up; and the plane 

 banks in the direction that the stick was moved. 



The up-and-down motion of the plane, or motion about its 

 lateral axis, is controlled by the elevators on the tail. A for- 

 ward movement of the stick moves the elevators down. The 

 air pushes the tail up and the nose goes down. A backward 

 movement of the stick moves the elevators up. The air pushes 

 the tail down, and the nose rises. 



Coordinated movements of the rudder, elevators, and ail- 

 erons can put the plane in any desired attitude. Learning to 

 fly is merely the development of skill in smoothly blending 

 the control pressures on stick and rudder pedals to direct the 

 course of the plane. This is easy to say and hard for some 

 pilots to do. If they are heavy-handed, or timid, in handling 

 the stick the plane will do all sorts of disconcerting things. 

 The plane is like a trained horse in that it wants to feel that 

 the person in charge really knows his business. 



Each time the pilot uses one control he must carefully 

 adjust some other control or the plane misbehaves. Use of the 

 stick to bank the plane to the right or left will cause the nose 

 of the plane to slew annoyingly in the opposite direction 

 unless proper adjustments are made with the pedals control- 

 ling the rudder on the tail. For a left turn, for example, a 

 slight pressure is applied to left rudder to start the nose swing- 

 ing and, at the same time, the stick is pressed to the left to 

 bank the plane. When the desired degree of bank has been 

 reached, rudder pressure is relaxed and the stick returned to 

 neutral position. The plane will continue the turn. Recovery 

 is effected by pressing right rudder and bringing the stick 



