Control and co-ordination is defined as relating control movements to attitudes of the aircraft with respect to the best visual reference. The best visual reference for most normal flying is the horizon as viewed by looking straight ahead over the nose of the aircraft. This requires moving the 3-axis controls in a co-ordinated manner. Students must understand the effects of controls and be able to move the aircraft about a given axis. At a more sophisticated level they must learn how the controls interact in altering the attitude of the aircraft. While we shouldn’t forget how the aircraft flies, it is more important at the start of flight training to understand how the pilot flies the aircraft. Pilots fly aircraft most accurately by relating control to what they see at their best visual reference. Control is then a two-part process. First the student moves the appropriate control and then relates the aircraft’s motion to visual changes at the horizon. What the student sees at the horizon is the key indicator, not how much a control is moved. For example, the most effective approach to control is to direct the student to lower the nose with respect to the horizon, by moving the stick forward. Once the terminology is established, then the control can be ‘forgotten’, and the student can progress to the point where the instructor’s request is to just “lower the nose”, or “fly faster”.
Instructors should always be quite explicit in the beginning in pointing out where the student must look, and what visual reference must be used to understand how pilots fly the aircraft. This is not the appropriate time to describe control in terms of ailerons, rudders, and elevators. These terms are related to how the plane works, not how we fly the plane. Using the how the plane flies viewpoint can present a barrier in linking control to effect. We are asking our minds to approach the problem from some less immediate step than the visual cue. The most direct route to learning the control skill is the visual avenue.
The skill of co-ordination is that of moving one or more of the aircraft’s controls to achieve a new steady state in the flight path. I describe co-ordination this way, as even a sideslip requires movement of the controls in a co-ordinated manner. The result of course is not always that the aircraft is flying with its longitudinal axis into the relative wind. With students we start with control movements that promote flight with the longitudinal axis into the relative wind. This normally requires movement of the stick and rudder pedals in the direction of the turn, and once the turn is established centralizing these controls more or less. This is initially a difficult process for most students as it requires movement of both hands and feet. For humans, the hand movements are usually OK, however getting the feet to co-operate requires a bit more practise. We are not used to co-ordinating our hands and feet in this manner when we are seated. We cannot depend on our prior experiences with bicycles or cars as they work differently. Again, the key to teaching co-ordination is to realize that accurate co-ordination is best achieved with good visual cues. These are found at the horizon and so the student must develop the habit of looking straight ahead to the horizon, until the control movements have stopped and the aircraft has assumed its new steady state. This is the essence of a good turn and the fundamental habit that must be learned. If we practise co-ordination by feel there are two consequences. First, this makes the initial task harder as it takes longer for the mind to train the body based on feelings as opposed to visual sensing. Secondly, pilots must then develop complicated ‘catalogues’ of the feel of different aircraft as they move from one to another. More precise co-ordination of the controls will result when visual rather than tactile cues are used first. With this approach flight skills readily transfer to any aircraft