1.03 - Flight Controls

The flight controls consist of various surfaces around the aircraft that manipulate the aerodynamic forces on the plane, allowing the pilot to control the aircraft.
The primary flight control surfaces include:
- Ailerons: Located on the trailing edge of the wings, they control the aircraft's roll around its longitudinal axis.
- Elevator: Located on the horizontal stabilizer, it controls the aircraft's pitch around its lateral axis.
- Rudder: Located on the vertical stabilizer, it controls the aircraft's yaw around its vertical axis.
The pilot manipulates these flight controls in order to achieve desired flight attitudes and maneuvers, such as climbing, descending, turning, and maintaining straight and level flight.

The Cessna one seventy two, like most training airplanes, has two trims:
- One that the pilot can directly control through cables on the elevator, allowing for sustained pitch adjustments without constant pilot input.
- Another, a ground adjustable tab on the rudder, which helps counteract persistent yawing tendencies, especially during climb.
Trim systems reduce the physical force required by the pilot to hold a control surface in a desired position, thereby reducing pilot workload and enhancing comfort during flight.
The transcript notes a related issue: left turning tendencies that the plane has while climbing.

These tendencies are primarily caused by four aerodynamic factors: torque, spiraling slipstream, P-factor, and gyroscopic precession.

It is obvious from the transcript that flight controls are a necessity for the pilot to fly the airplane.
The pilot manipulates these flight controls in order to achieve desired flight attitudes and maneuvers, such as climbing, descending, turning, and maintaining straight and level flight.

Flight controls: Surfaces around the aircraft that manipulate the aerodynamic forces to control the airplane.
Ailerons: Control surfaces on the wings that primarily control the aircraft's roll.
Elevator: The control surface connected to the cockpit controls via cables, used to pitch the aircraft.
Rudder: The control surface used to yaw the aircraft; in this transcript it is associated with a ground-adjustable trim tab.
Trim: A mechanism that adjusts the resting position of a control surface to reduce pilot workload.
Trim tab: A small auxiliary surface on a control surface that can be adjusted; here described as a ground-adjustable tab on the rudder.
Torque: The tendency for an aircraft's propeller to rotate about its longitudinal axis in the opposite direction of the propeller's rotation.
Spiraling slipstream: The spiraling motion of air rearward from the propeller, which strikes the left side of the vertical stabilizer and causes a yawing tendency.
P-factor (Propeller factor): An asymmetrical thrust loading on the propeller blades, especially when the aircraft's angle of attack is high, causing more thrust on the descending blade side.
Gyroscopic precession: The resultant action or deflection of a spinning rotor (like a propeller) when a force is applied to its