How do you steer a plane?

what is the thingy called that pilots use to steer a plane? its not a steering wheel, right?|||Stick, or joystick.|||I believe it is called a yoke. Turning the wheel on the yoke controls the wing flaps making the plane tilt to one side or the other and they also use foot pedals for the rudder control which actually changes the direction.


Pulling back or pushing forward on the yoke makes the plane point up or down..|||That's a better question than you'd imagine. A pilot has to move the ailerons, the elevator, and the rudder to steer, and this all has to be done at the same time. Different planes have different controls: the most basic uses a stick, and that's what it's called, to move the elevator and the ailerons, while the pilot's feet sit on pedals that control the rudder. On some airplanes--typically big airliners--the stick has been modified into something that looks a lot like a steering wheel. It's called a yoke, I think, and you turn it to move the ailerons and pull or push on it to control the elevator. The rudder is still controlled by pedals, but may be linked to the yoke in some ways.





Another good question would ask what the pilot steers when the plane is on the ground. Sometimes there's a little steering wheel called a tiller to steer the nose wheel, and sometimes there's a deal that connects the rudder pedals or the yoke to steer the nosewheel whenever it's touching the ground. Again, different planes have different arrangements, which I find rather odd, but that's the way it apparently is.|||It is properly called a control yoke. This controls the elevators at the back of the plane and the ailerons on the wings. The two pedals on the floor are the rudder pedals which control the rudder on the tail, and in most general aviation aircraft they also control nose wheel steering.|||The yoke. Turning it moves the ailerons on the wings to steer the plane during flight. Moving it forward or back moves the elevators on the horizontal part of the tail to increase or decrease altitude.





The foot pedals control the steering while the plane is on the ground. They also control the braking while landing and are assisted by the engine thrust reversers (the loud roaring you hear on landing) The foot pedals also move the rudder on the vertical part of the tail to assist the ailerons in steering in flight.


There is a lot more to it and how all of the controls work together but that is it simplified. I hope it helps.|||Reasonable question. I guess you can break it down into parts.





The yoke is the 'steering wheel' or control wheel. The yoke is part of the control column. The yoke controls the lateral movements with the airplanes ailerons. This can be down with control cables and hydraulic actuators or with what they like to call fly-by-wire systems that a electrical signal from the control yoke sends a signal to the actuator telling it to move a certain direction. This motion is the roll axis of the aircraft.





The control column when pulled back or pushed forward with the control yoke, controls the elevators which control the airplane along its pitch axis. Again this can be with control cables and hydraulics or fly-by-wire systems.





All Boeing aircraft have a control yoke mounted to a control column.





Airbus perfers the control stick. Looks like a joystick in a computer game. This controls the airplane with a fly-by-wire system. Flight control computers give the control stick some 'feedback' so the pilots has some feel of what the airplane is doing. Some pilots that I have spoken with really like the control sticks in Airbus airplanes.





The first link is a 777 flightdeck showing the control yokes.





The second link is for an Airbus 319 showing the joysticks.|||A joy stick and pedals|||well it depends on the type of airplane.....





but usually the big airplanes use a yoke...





the small supersonic ones use a stick...|||Real pilots fly helicoters. In a helicopter it's called a cyclic control. It tilts the rotor disc in the direction of desired travel. there are also three other controls to maintian, the anti-torque pedals, the collective lever, and the throttle.|||It's a combination of Aeleron movement to bank the plane and rudder movement to keep the turn coordinated. And on the ground, yes the nose wheel does do the steering, on most planes, while braking the left of right wheels allows pilots to make sharper turns.|||The rudder peddles at the base of the control panel are to move the plane on the GROUND! the joystick is only in the air and on approch, once on the ground - the joystick is useless|||Most planes have a steering wheel or yoke in the cockpit that's used to control the ailerons and elevators on the aircraft. The ailerons cause the airplane to bank and the elevator causes the airplane to pitch up or down (it will climb or descend in conjunction with control inputs based on power). If the pilot turns the yoke to the left, the airplane banks left; if he turns it to the right the airplane bank right. If he pulls back on the yoke, the nose of the airplane pitches up, and if he pushes forward on the yoke, the airplane nose pitches down. In addition to the yoke, the pilot uses rudder pedals to control the rudder on the airplane. The rudder is used to cooridate the turn initiated by the yoke. If the pilot was simply to turn the yoke to the left, without applying left rudder, the airplane would slide to the left (the nose would be pointing straight in the direction of travel but the wing would be dipped down towards the left). In effect, the passengers would feel as though they're slidding to the left and they wouldn't feel as though they're sitting safely in their seats. By using the rudder, the pilot yaws (turns on the vertical plane of the aircraft) the airplane to the left so that the nose of the airplane turns into the bank. When pilots in large airplanes turn an airplane, they're using a combination of aileron inputs (using the yoke) and rudder (using the rudder pedals) to turn the airplane. In addition, the pilot may be pulling back on the yoke to keep the nose up in the turn so that the plane doesn't descend.





On the ground, most smaller airplanes are controlled using the rudder pedals. Most airplanes have a linkage the connects the rudder pedals with the nose wheel. Push on the left rudder pedal and the plane turns left; push on the right rudder pedal and the plane turns right. The toe of the rudder pedals act as brakes. The left tow operates the left side brakes and the right toe operates the right side brakes. These can also be used in conjunction with the rudder pedals to steer the airplane. This is known as differential braking.





There are variations of these control between aircrafts. Some airplanes use a stick located between the pilot's legs to control ailerons and elevator. The stick operates in roughly the same fashion as the yoke. Left banks left; right banks right; pulling back on the stick pitches the nose up, etc...|||Yes it is a steering wheel for controlling on ground termed as "Nose wheel steering"


It steers the aircraft on the ground. Its somewhat similar to car steering. It can give a turn of 45 degrees turn to both sides. Some aircraft are equipped with separate steering for Pilot and Co-pilot, in such cases priority is always for pilot (Captain). In other type aircraft it is only equipped for pilot. While towing the aircraft the steering wheel will be in CUT-OFF condition.





Flight Control System


This is for controlling aircraft on Air. Aileron (Roll /Bank) and Elevator (Pitch) are controlled by control stick in old aircrafts, which are superseded by yoke assembly, and joy sticks in modern aircrafts. Rudder (Yaw) is controlled by Rudder pedal which is like car brake and accelerator but functionality similar to cycle pedal (inter linked). When the control stick is moved forward and backward, it controls pitch movement i.e. Up and Down around lateral axis, and side wise gives left/right bank around the longitudinal axis. Rudder pedal pressing with left leg gives left yaw movement and with right leg gives right yaw movement about the vertical axis. and in ground it is used as differential brake to give a quick turn.|||The pedals are the rudders... that's all I know, sorry.|||yes, it is a steering wheel