how do you control an airplane in this video I'm going to explain the basics of how an airplane is controlled by the pilot and how the flight controls move the airplane around its three main axes welcome to Free pilot training I'm Josh and today I'm talking to you about controlling your airplane because in order to build a good foundation for your flight training you've got to understand how the flight controls work and how you can use them to move the airplane around its three main a unlike a car or a truck an airplane is able to move into three dimensions it's able to move into these three different dimensions because it rotates around its center of gravity on three different axes the lateral axis the longitudinal axis and the vertical axis we're going to be discussing each one of those in detail but if you're taking notes you're going to want to remember these for the written exam and speaking of that this video that you're watching is part of my complete and totally free Private Pilot ground course here on YouTube but in order order to take the FAA written exam you've got to be endorsed by an improved instructor so if you're going to be taking that written exam you can buy the premium version of this course which includes an endorsement reading assignments and quizzes that'll ensure that you're completely ready to take that test because believe me it's a bear but don't worry these videos will get you ready and that premium course will make doubly sure that you pass the exam with flying colors and that's available for only $50 on free pilot trining Donnet look around most courses are going to cost you closer to $300 but anyway let's get back to talking about these three axes now I briefly mentioned this a second ago but it's important to remember that all three of these axes go through the center of gravity and when your airplane moves it rotates around the center of gravity on that axis but what the heck is the center of gravity in a nutshell the center of gravity is a theoretical point where the weight of an aircraft is concentrated in other words if I were to hang an airplane on a string by its center of gravity the airplane would be balanced perfectly and it would just stay like this as long as we didn't move any weight around and if we move some weight up closer to the front the center of gravity would move forward as well and the nose would tilt down on you now it's important to note that an airplane doesn't actually balance on its center of gravity it actually balances on something called the center of lift and the center of lift is a theoretical point where all the lift that a wing produces is concentrated in other words this is the spot where we balance an airplane when we're flying so if we were put the center of gravity directly beneath the center of lift the airplane would just chill here perfectly balanced but we don't do that we actually put the center of gravity in front of the center of lifts so the nose of your airplane is actually really heavy I'll explain why we do that in a future episode but for now all you need to know is that an airplane moves around its center of gravity on its three axes okay now that you know that let's take a look at each individual axis the first way an airplane moves is on its lateral axis some Pilots refer to to this as the pitch axis because we move an airplane around its lateral axis by pitching the nose of the aircraft up or down now here's where things get kind of weird by pitching the nose up and down the aircraft is actually moving longitudinally around that lateral axxis now in my old video I had a ton of people questioning that statement yes the airplane moves longitudinally around the lateral axis the airplane moves perpendicular to the axis that you're rotating on does that make sense comment below if you're still having a hard time with that now how do we move our airplane around that lateral axis well to pitch the nose up and down we have to use the elevator and to control the elevator on our aircraft we have to use the yolk or the stick if your airplane has one of those pulling back on the Yol raises your elevator and by raising the elevator in Flight the tail is deflected downward and that rotates our aircraft up around the lateral axis if we push forward on the Yol that lowers the elevator and that deflects the tail upward which rolls us down around that lateral axis and if that's too complicated remember this trees get bigger trees get smaller that ought to learn you and that's how simple it is to move an aircraft longitudinally around its lateral axis now let's talk about the longitudinal axis this is what most Pilots refer to as the roll axis and that's because we roll the airplane around that axis now remember this axis goes through the center of gravity the entire length of the airplane that's why we call it the longitudinal axis but the actual movement is perpendicular to that axis just like the other one we just talked about so when an airplane moves around its longitudinal axis it's moving laterally around that longitudinal axis have I confused you yet yeah you did I hope not I want you guys to get this we're going to be building on all this information now how do we move laterally around that roll axis what controls do we need to use if you said Aeron you're absolutely correct just like the elevator the aerons are one of the primary flight controls that we use as Pilots to control the aircraft aerons are kind of interesting these are tied together in such a way that by rotating the Yol one Aeron is raised while the other one is lowered the aileron that is lowered creates more lift while the Aeron that is raised creates less lift this in turn rolls the aircraft in whatever Direction the pilot wants we'll talk more about this in a future video but for now all you need to do is remember that the aerons roll the aircraft along its longitudinal axis last but not least let's talk about the vertical axis some Pilots refer to this as the yaw axis now why is that cuz it's so boring it makes you yawn not exactly yaw is simply another word for a side to side or a twisting motion and an airplane moves side to side or yaws around its vertical axis now I do want to mention that yaw the airplane is not the way we turn an aircraft I'll be explaining this more in a future video but it's important to remember that the yaw axis is controlled by using the rudder pedals and the reason we have Rudder pedals is to maintain directional control of the aircraft and the reason we need to do this is because of something called adverse yaw remember what I said earlier about the ailerons ailerons are what we're going to be using to turn the airplane and we do that by rolling around that longitudinal axis when we rotate the Yol one aileron moves up and the other aileron moves down not only does this roll the airplane but something else happens as well anytime an aileron is lowered that Wing has more drag on it and because of this extra drag the airplane actually yaws in the direction of that lowered aileron this means that anytime you roll the aircraft you should also be moving the rudder pedals as well and Rudder pedals are simple when you push the right pedal the airplane yaws to the right and when you push the left Rudder pedal the airplane yaws to the left yaw to the left yaw to the right um sure anyway this means that in order to keep the airplane aligned with its direction of travel we must use the rudder with the ailerons and this is how you do that anytime you roll to the left you should also be putting in a tiny little bit of left Rudder as well and when you roll right you should be putting in a little bit of right Rudder keep in mind this is also important when you're rolling out of a turn so if I'm rolling out of a left turn I have to use right aileron to do that this this means I actually need to use a little bit of right Rudder to maintain that directional control and you know you're doing it right if the ball of your aircraft is centered throughout the whole maneuver if it's not step on the ball to get the tail of the airplane back where it needs to be boy you better be stepping on that ball well he ain't wrong get ready to hear that again and that is how to control an airplane I hope you enjoyed this lesson before you watch the next one be sure to take the free quiz down in the description to make sure that you've retained all this information and don't forget to check out free pilot training. net if you need that endorsement and I'll see you in the next episode see you we going to learn you right