Stick or Control Wheel,what's best?

I'll see your yoke and stick and raise you a sidestick.

training-fq-learjet.jpg

Calspan Lear 25 variable-stability inflight simulator.

Nauga,
and his pole placement
 
I've spent hundreds of hours in airplanes with control wheels and airplanes with sticks. I learned to fly through the Vandenberg AFB Aero Club in a C-150 with control wheels, and soon after started flying Beech T-34 Mentors with sticks. My current ride is a Zenith Zodiac with sticks, and I actually prefer them over control wheels. I haven't tried sidesticks yet, but I think I'd like them.
 

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Spring Ford said:
So it's not the Shuttle Trainer? I'll have to have a look at that. Thanks.
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No,I it's used for training and testing of new control concepts. It's been modified with a new flight control computer that can represent different levels of stability and different types of control systems typical of modern FBW airplanes. The new controllers operate on the existing controls, and if any of many limits are exceeded it reverts back to the original controls. The yoke on the left functions through the original control system so there's always direct control through known and tested/proven controls, the center and side sticks on the right operate the augmented controls.

Nauga,
and the hefty-bag test platform
 
I got my private in a Diamond DA-20, so I have always been partial to sticks.
 
The big problem with sticks was always that they can make it difficult to get into the airplane. I've flown with sidesticks and wasn't a big fan. Biggest complaint was without electric trim there wasn't a lot of lever arm to uuumph the airplane around. If the power went out that sucker would've been a handful.

Still, I like a stick, a lot. Comfort and ease are highly overrated.
 
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I like center sticks. I have not flown a side stick but I would probably still prefer a yolk for the simple reason that I can use it with either hand.
 
I prefer a stick, especially if the airplane is aerobatic capable. And a center stick so you readily know where neutral is. A normal yoke is ok too, exp in standard airplanes. We built a small homebuilt that had a side stick, I flew it ok but not that great.
The one thing that might make be buy a Cirrus is the parachute. The one thing that makes me not buy it is that silly side stick. And yes I know all the folks who say you get used to it, and so on and on. Bull. Why should you have to get used to a design defect? You can of course fly a yoke with either hand, not like a Cirrus magic twanger which is for left hand only., for left seat. A really well thought out arrangement is the RAF type of stick with the round circular grip on top, ei Spitfire, Hurricane etc. Its easy to use with either hand and the way your hand naturally hangs, and very natural to pivot the top for ailerons and the whole stick fore and aft for pitch. And when you get used to them hand operated brakes on the stick are more natural than toe brakes. I like a T-34 stick also. A nice perk of a yoke is you can have a clock in the middle and some look good.
 
I have flown a center stick in Tecnam LSAs and a yoke in a Cherokee. The stick is always in the way, bumping my kneeboard of getting tapped by my passenger’s leg. It was hard to get my leg far enough out of the way if I needed substantial aileron.

Yoke is better, though not perfect. I would really like to try a side stick.
 
an LSA might be different but a stick in front of the pilot where your legs go on each side has worked for a hundred thousand of the finest fighters in WWII, as well as Pitts, Extra , Sukoui and on and on. I have flown Diamond and Gobosh with a stick, worked fine. Half fast, go try a T-34. Nothing wrong with a Cherokee, I learned in a 140, but its not the hottest thing around.
 
I've flown a wide variety of yokes and center sticks and a handful of sidesticks. For maneuverable airplanes I far prefer center sticks, for less maneuverable I *think* I prefer yokes but that might be more a factor of the general characteristics of the airplanes I've flown than the fact that they were stick or yoke. It's fairly easy to adapt to either one with either hand. I have yet to find a sidestick I like. It's harder to get good mechanical characteristics and flying qualities with them throughout the envelope, although it it possible (IME), so I've seen more 'less-good' ones than good ones. I also find it difficult to use my left hand on them (assuming right sidestick) and also difficult to look aft over my right shoulder, especially while maneuvering.

With a conventional stick being left-handed is definitely an advantage. ;)

Nauga,
stuck
 
Bill Greenwood said:
an LSA might be different but a stick in front of the pilot where your legs go on each side has worked for a hundred thousand of the finest fighters in WWII, as well as Pitts, Extra , Sukoui and on and on. I have flown Diamond and Gobosh with a stick, worked fine. Half fast, go try a T-34. Nothing wrong with a Cherokee, I learned in a 140, but its not the hottest thing around.
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Might be just the Tecnam, but my stubby legs and height of 5’3” mean I use a cushion and have the seat all the way forward to get full movement of the pedals. That makes a stick worse for me than a yoke. Folks who aren’t vertically challenged might not have the same difficulties.
 
Side stick would be a problem if you needed to muscle the controls, for example if you had runaway trim.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
Side stick would be a problem if you needed to muscle the controls, for example if you had runaway trim.
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A properly-designed control system with a sidestick will have sufficient mechanical advantage to make trim runaway manageable.

Nauga,
and a lever big enough to move the world
 
I prefer flying a plane with a stick.

Now getting into said plane varies. In my biplane, I climb down into the cockpit, so the stick is no problem. In my Luscombe, I had to crawl in like a baby. Maybe that's because I'm not very limber.
 
Sticks tend to avoid crossover learning from steering wheels that causes all sorts of problems. Like being unwilling to aggressively rotate them to the stops when needed.

So I’ll say stick. Less bad habits to break.
 
I've sat in a couple of side stick planes. To me, the side sticks functioned more like one sided yokes than actual sticks. The advantage? You don't have a yoke clogging up panel real estate. The disadvantage? Ow, I just broke my left hand. Now I have to fly my plane back from the right seat.
 
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That other guy who looks like Harrison Ford is one of aviations unique characters and a top pilot.
 
I have one of each, yoke and stick.

Makes absolutely no difference to me. I'm never going to turn down the opportunity to fly a plane based on this criteria.

Hell, after much rehab and therapy I've even gotten over my bias against high wings. :D

Husky3.JPG
 
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kgruber said:
The only reason airplanes went from stick to wheel was for women with skirts to be able to fly.
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I dispute this. :D

The reason airplanes went from stick to wheel is because Piper went from the superior tandem arrangement to side-by-side seating, and were too cheap to put a LH door on their planes to eliminate the now mandatory "pilot slide across". :eek:

All was lost after that...:(
 
GRG55 said:
I dispute this. :D

The reason airplanes went from stick to wheel is because Piper went from the superior tandem arrangement to side-by-side seating, and were too cheap to put a LH door on their planes to eliminate the now mandatory "pilot slide across". :eek:

All was lost after that...:(
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Nah, the wheel was there from the start. It was the invention of the windshield that ruined everything.

4929186B-70F2-40E7-8E3F-34429263BBEC.jpeg
 
Curtis Pusher NR8Y (ms223_034_01_003)

I have assumed that more force can be applied to the control surfaces from a wheel arrangement. I guess that is because larger aircraft seemed to inevitably have a wheel.

WW2 DH Mosquito had I believe wheel in the no guns bomber version and stick in the with guns fighter version which followed later. The stick was a bit odd in the the Pitch control was hinged at the base and the roll control about two thirds of the way up. I guess this allowed more movement side to side. I have no idea how accurate this image is but it confirms the arrangement of the stick that I have seen before.


72e765eb2225212a4f9bc839fcd9b129.jpg


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/72/e7/65/72e765eb2225212a4f9bc839fcd9b129.jpg
 
I thought I would hate a stick after flying with a yolk for 25 years.

After 5 minutes in my homebuilt plane with a be stick I realized how wrong I had been. With the stick I felt I could just "think" about where I want to go and the plane goes there. There is no conscious thought like when I turn the yolk in a Cessna.

To me, it just seems so much more natural. I would never choose to go back to a yolk.
 
After a while you forget which one you even have. They have the same function without any real limitations.

I don't think I have a preference, and I wouldn't consider one "better" than the other.
 
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