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Section 7 of 13

Control, trim and balance

(Principles of flight: control, trim and balance)

Stability keeps the aeroplane steady; control lets you change what it is doing. Every manoeuvre comes down to deflecting a control surface, which changes the shape of an aerofoil, which changes the aerodynamic force it produces, which gives a turning moment about an axis. The surfaces sit near the extremities so they have a long arm from the CG and the greatest leverage. In a sense the controls are deliberate destabilisers: they let you overcome the aeroplane's natural stability to make it do something new.

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