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Chapter-2 Straight and Level and Turns-V20_Sport Pilot Handbook 8/30/2021 5:44 PM Page 3

Chapter 2: Flying Straight and Level and Turning 2-3

The Airplane’s Axes Having an Attitude
In aviation, words sometimes
mean something a little different.
And so it is with attitude.
While it is not necessarily good
for your teenager to have an atti-
tude, it is something your airplane
always has, and that’s not bad. It
has more to do with pitch than
petulance.
In the aviation, world attitude
means the orientation of one of the
airplane’s three axes relative to the
horizon or another reference line.
So, when we speak of the plane’s
Longitudinal Lateral pitch attitude having increased, it
means that the angle between the
Axis
horizon line and the place the nose
Yaw
Axis Axis is pointing is greater (vertically)
Fig. 7 than it was previously.
We’ll discuss its use in detail later in this chapter.) The Pull Aft, Pitch Upward
rod runs top to bottom (cockpit ceiling to wheels)
and the plane rotates around it in a circle.

All three flight controls allow you to rotate the
airplane about one or more of its axes. Combining
these rotations in the right way, at the right time,
yields one or more of the following four basic flight
maneuvers: straight and level flight, turns, climbs and
descents. There are your building blocks. Everything
you’ll do (or undo) in an airplane is a combination of
one or more of these basic flight maneuvers, and all Elevator
are done by manipulating the flight controls. surface
deflected
Let’s put you in control by looking closely at how upward
each flight control operates.
Fig. 8
Yoke and Pedal
You manipulate the airplane’s elevator surface from
the cockpit by forward and aft movement of the yoke. Moving Push Forward, Pitch Downward
the yoke forward or aft rotates the nose up or down around
the lateral axis, changing the airplane’s pitch attitude
relative to the horizon. Rotating the yoke right or
left (causing rotation along the longitudinal axis)
banks the airplane relative to the horizon.
Pulling the yoke toward you (pulling back)
deflects the elevator surface (located at the rear of
the airplane) upward, causing the moving air to
deflect the tail downward (Figure 8). This results in
Elevator
the airplane’s nose pitching upward about the lateral surface
axis. Moving the yoke forward deflects the elevator deflected
surface downward causing the tail to move upward downward
(Figure 9). This results in the nose pitching down-
Fig. 9
ward about the lateral axis.