The primary RC airplane controls

- what they are, what they do

Getting a firm understanding of rc airplane controls - what they are and how they work
- will help you get much more out of your new hobby and you'll become a better rc
pilot for it.

The number of controls necessary or required differs between planes; the simplest rc
airplanes will have just one single control while the more complex planes may have five,
six or more. Your 'average' rc plane will have three or four controls, this is by far the
most common number.
Incidentally, if you're completely new to the radio control flying hobby, a controllable
function of any rc model is referred to as a channel so an rc airplane with control to,
say, four functions will be called a 4 channelplane, sometimes abbreviated to just 4 ch..

RC airplane controls are, of course, the same as those found on real airplanes and they
control the model in exactly the same way.

The four primary controls of an rc airplane are throttle, elevator, aileronsand rudder.
The elevator, ailerons and rudder are known as control surfaces and the picture below
shows where these main controls are located on a fairly typical 4 channel rc 'sport'
airplane....

Above: location of ailerons, elevators and rudder on an rc airplane.

Which controls do what?

Now you know where the primary rc plane controls are located, let's take a look at each
one...
Throttle
 Throttle controls the speed of the engine and hence
how fast or slow the propeller turns.
On a glow plug (or petrol) rc airplane engine the throttle works the same as any internal
combustion engine throttle, by changing the amount of fuel and air that enters the
combustion chamber of the engine. The carburettor is operated by a single servo
connected to the venturi of the carb, which opens and closes (thus changing the fuel/air
mixture) in response to your throttle stick movements on the transmitter.
On an electric rc airplane the throttle is usually referred to as motor power rather
than throttle. Very basic electric rc planes (i.e. toy ones) might not have proportional
control to motor power but just a simple on/off switch instead.
Electric airplanes that do have control to motor power have an electronic speed control,
or ESC, that controls power to the motor in direct response to your Tx stick movements.
In the air throttle/motor power not only controls the forward speed of the airplane but
also, more importantly, the rate of climb and descent, because different amounts
of lift are generated at different airspeeds. For example, if your landing approach path
is too low you can make the airplane rise slightly without changing speed much, simply
by opening the throttle instead of using up elevator. Conversely, closing the throttle will
cause the airplane to sink before the speed reduces.
Using throttle/motor power in this way is the correct way to fly your rc airplane, but
many pilots use the elevator to control altitude and rates of climb and descent.
Elevators
The elevators are the hinged section of the tailplane, or horizontal stabiliser, at the very
rear of the airplane and are the single most important control surface.
Elevators control the horizontal pitch attitude of the airplane, in other words whether
the nose of the plane points upwards or downwards.
When elevators are in the up position (upward deflection) the nose of the airplane is
forced to point upwards, and with the elevators deflected downwards then the nose is
forced downwards. This resulting nose up/nose down pitch attitude comes about as the
upward/downward deflection of the elevators changes the amount of down force being
generated by the tailplane.
It's worth noting that a plane can still fly level, or even be descending, with a very nose-
up attitude but a nose-down pitch attitude will almost always result in the plane
entering a dive, thanks to our friend gravity!
Elevators directly effect the plane's airspeed more than the need to climb or dive.
Elevators should be used in conjunction with rudder and/or ailerons when making a
turn.
Ailerons
Not all rc airplane controls include ailerons, in fact the majority of 3 channel radio
control airplanes use rudder instead. But where fitted, ailerons control the roll of the
airplane about its longitudinal axis (imagine a straight line running through the centre
of the fuselage, from nose to tail).
Ailerons work in pairs and are found on the trailing (rear) edge of the wing, and they
work opposite to each other i.e. when one aileron moves up, the other one moves down
and vice versa.

Ailerons work by changing the amount of lift generation over the wing. As an aileron
moves upwards so it disrupts the smooth airflow over the wing surface and so lift is
reduced slightly on that wing. Over on the other wing the aileron moves downwards and
increases lift slightly. As a result, the airplane tilts and hence rolls towards the side
that's experiencing less lift.
When up elevator is applied at the same time as ailerons, the airplane is pulled round in
to a banked turn; the ailerons cause the plane to roll and the up elevator causes the
nose to pitch round in that direction.
Ailerons are used in all aerobatic maneuvers that involve a rolling motion.
Rudder
The rudder is the hinged section of the fin, or vertical stabiliser, at the rear of the
airplane.
It's used for directional control by changing the yaw of the airplane and works in the
correct sense i.e. moving the rudder to the left causes the airplane to turn left and vice
versa.

Applying rudder makes the nose of the airplane point to the left or right, but rudder
alone does not make the airplane roll like ailerons do. It's actually the dihedral, or the
upward 'V' angle of the wing when viewed from the front, that makes the plane roll
when rudder is applied; a plane with very little or no dihedral will have a much flatter
turn when rudder is applied.

Rudder is also very important on the ground, it's the one control that will keep your rc
airplane tracking straight during a take off run or landing roll if your plane isn't fitted
with a steerable nose or tail wheel.

Other RC airplane controls

Other important controls found on more complex rc airplanes

includeflaps and retractable landing gear, or 'retracts'.
Flaps are located on the trailing edge of each wing, between the aileron and fuselage.
They're used to generate more lift at slower flying speeds and, at greater deflection, to
slow the airplane down close to landing by causing excessive drag.
Unlike ailerons, flaps are connected in such a way that they both drop exactly the same
amount together so as not to upset the roll attitude of the plane when they are
deployed.

Flaps are operated with a toggle switch or rotating dial on the transmitter. A dial is the
better option because this allows the pilot to use as little or as much flap as he wants,
according to the situation. Flaps operated by a single position (on/off) toggle switch will
be all or nothing.

When a lesser amount of flap is used it's quite common for the airplane to pitch
upwards as soon as the flaps are lowered, this is a result of the extra lift being
generated and the pilot needs to be aware of this happening before he activates the
flaps.

Retractable landing gear (undercarriage) is landing gear that folds away into the
airplane's wings or fuselage once the plane has taken off.

Retracts are often used on larger rc airplanes, particularly scale models where the real
airplane has retractable undercarriage. Larger non-scale airplanes can also have
retracts, particularly competition rc airplanes where it's necessary to reduce the amount
of drag on the plane in the air. Obviously an airplane with no landing gear hanging
below it experiences a lot less drag than one with.

Retracts can be operated mechanically by a servo, driven by compressed air or more

recently electric worm-drive. The retraction of the landing gear is operated by the
flicking of a single switch on the transmitter, typically either on the 5th or 6th channel.

Control surface mixing

Some rc airplanes are designed in such a way that they cannot have separate ailerons
and elevators - delta-wing planes, for example. When this is the case control surface
'mixing' is necessary and this is only possible on computerised rc radios that offer a
mixing capability.
When elevators and ailerons are combined together, or mixed, they become elevons.
They look just like elevators but move together, as elevators do, and individually, as
ailerons do. In short, one pair of elevons does the job of elevators and ailerons.
Flaperons are control surfaces that mix the actions of ailerons with flaps. In other
words, one pair of control surfaces along the trailing edge of the wing take on the job
of aileron control and flap control, when needed.
Spoilerons are, in effect, the inverted version of flaperons. Spoilers are often found on
large rc gliders and operate by the control surfaces moving upwards as opposed to
flaps that drop down. When spoilerons are deflected, the amount of lift is drastically
reduced and so the glider's rate of descent quickly increases, enabling the pilot to land
it in a smaller space.

There are other types of rc airplane control mixing too, but those listed above are by far
the most common that you'll encounter.
Channel mixing is another type of mixing supported by most modern computer radios.
I this case two separate channels can be mixed to operate together.
A common example of channel mixing is an aileron and rudder mix; a small amount of
rudder is automatically applied when you operate the ailerons. The purpose of this is to
produce a cleaner turn and can prevent the effects of adverse yaw, a common situation
whereby the tail drops during a turn due to increased drag over the higher wing. Aileron
Differential is the 'mechanical' answer to this issue.

Proportional RC airplane controls

You'll often see the word proportional when looking at radio control systems.

By proportional control, we mean that the control surfaces respond directly to how
much you move the stick of the transmitter. In other words, if you only move the stick a
small amount then that channel will only respond a small amount. Moving the stick to
the maximum position will move that channel to its maximum.

Apart from the cheapest rc toys, all modern-day radio control systems are proportional.
Non-proportional functions of an rc model or toy will be simple 'on/off' or 'left/right'
functions.
Understanding your rc airplane controls, or indeed the controls of any rc model, is of
paramount importance if you want to enjoy your model to its fullest and get the most
out of the hobby.
Always take a bit of time to understand how your new rc airplane, helicopter or vehicle
is operating and responding to your transmitter inputs, rather than just moving a stick
and watching the model change direction. You'll be a much better rc'er for it!