Stick or Wheel

Stick or wheel

  • Total voters
    51
  • Poll closed .
J

JustinPinnix

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Justin
So, if you were designing the perfect GA airplane, which would it have, a stick or a control wheel?
 
Greg Bockelman said:
None of the above.

Sidestick. Unobstructed panel.
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What Greg said. Cirrus got this one right.

I must admit I voted before reading the question, but I voted "Stick" because the planes that I think are the most fun (DA40, Super Cub, Extra) all have sticks.
 
i didnt fly a stick till I started in gliders, and towing with Super Cub. A few others now. I find it much more intutive.
 
The side stick was a good idea except that I am a leftie and with the side stick I cannot easily take my hand off of it to write anything down. At least witha center stick or yoke I can fly with my right hand and write with my left.
 
smigaldi said:
The side stick was a good idea except that I am a leftie and with the side stick I cannot easily take my hand off of it to write anything down. At least witha center stick or yoke I can fly with my right hand and write with my left.
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Same here!
 
smigaldi said:
The side stick was a good idea except that I am a leftie and with the side stick I cannot easily take my hand off of it to write anything down. At least witha center stick or yoke I can fly with my right hand and write with my left.
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Put me on that list, too. Bad enough trying to talk on the radio and take notes at the same time with the PTT on the left side of the yoke.
 
The Good Lord intended airplanes to have sticks, just as He intended sports cars to have stick shifts, and for helicopters to have skids :yes:
 
I have a few minutes in sticks (J3 cub and Kate Bomber replica) and I must admit it does seem a bit more intuitive. I am NOT so sure about the whole side-stick thing though.

However I like the yoke in from of me for some reason.
 
Granted I only have about 15 minutes of stick time, but the wheel is always poking me in the belly. It takes up about 3 cubic feet of my preciously small cockpit space. Worse yet, my wife bought me a $60 kneeboard for Christmas one year and I couldn't use it because it jammed the controls.

So why the heck did almost every GA airplane in the 60s, 70s, and 80s have a wheel? Is it simply "because airliners do"?
 
JustinPinnix said:
Granted I only have about 15 minutes of stick time, but the wheel is always poking me in the belly. It takes up about 3 cubic feet of my preciously small cockpit space. Worse yet, my wife bought me a $60 kneeboard for Christmas one year and I couldn't use it because it jammed the controls.

So why the heck did almost every GA airplane in the 60s, 70s, and 80s have a wheel? Is it simply "because airliners do"?
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Personally I prefer a stick between my legs, it offers me the most flexibility, though wheels were used on some of the very earliest aircraft. The first aircraft that Glenn Curtis took a military officer on a demo flight with had a wheel.
 
Did all my basic PPL training in sticks. Have a stick aircraft (RV8 in my avtar). But older I get, more I like a yoke in front of me.

Gives me something to rest my head on when I need to take those in-flight naps.

-JD
 
CowboyPilot said:
Did all my basic PPL training in sticks. Have a stick aircraft (RV8 in my avtar). But older I get, more I like a yoke in front of me.

-JD
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Nice bird!

I personally didn't have much stick time (other than a couple of hours of PA-11 time) before flying the RV-7A. Since then, I LOVE having the stick control. Especially in the RV, you simply lean one way or the other to get a turn started and your elevator trim consists of moving your feet from the rudders to the wing spar mounting area. :D

-Chris
 
smigaldi said:
The side stick was a good idea except that I am a leftie and with the side stick I cannot easily take my hand off of it to write anything down. At least witha center stick or yoke I can fly with my right hand and write with my left.
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So how do you do it with a yoke, Scott? To me this is a non sequiter.
 
Theres a lot more to flying than just jerkin the stick between your legs.
TimE
 
Stick flying is definitely more intuitive. I presume that this carries over to side stick, but the only sidestick flying I have done was in a Cirrus, right seat, and flying with my right wand was as unnatural as... well, lots of stuff with my left. I expect the left hand would like sidestick flying just fine.
 
The side stick was a good idea except that I am a leftie and with the side stick I cannot easily take my hand off of it to write anything down. At least witha center stick or yoke I can fly with my right hand and write with my left.
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Greg Bockelman said:
So how do you do it with a yoke, Scott? To me this is a non sequiter.
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I'm not the OP on this, but my guess is that he means that he has to write with his left hand. With a yoke, he could momentarily fly with his right hand on the yoke while writing with his left.

With a side-stick on the left, that would be rather difficult. :)
 
jsight said:
I'm not the OP on this, but my guess is that he means that he has to write with his left hand. With a yoke, he could momentarily fly with his right hand on the yoke while writing with his left.

With a side-stick on the left, that would be rather difficult. :)
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I got the point. But I have flown a side stick from the right side and I am right handed. It really isn't an issue.
 
Admittedly, I've not flown a stick but I think there would be definite advantages. I'm looking forward to spin training and later aerobatic training in a Pitts with... not a control wheel! Therefor... stick it, dude! B)
 
Well, lessee...stick is more comfortable if that's all that's going on...but it's tough to unfold a sectional chart on your lap unless you punch a hole in it for the stick, so a yoke would be better there...or maybe a sidestick, but the "crosshand writing" thing might be a problem...

I guess it doesn't really matter to me, as long as I can open the window and stick my elbow out! :rofl:

Fly safe!

David
 
Why do people think their hand needs to be on the stick 100% of the time? If you are in proper trim, you can fly hands off long enough to jot a note down on a piece of paper.
 
This is the easiest question I've answered in a long, long time...

The Bonanza would be a perfect traveling airplane if it just had a STICK!
 
Can't really answer that one b/c I have only ever flown Diana's Citabria and Steves IAR at Gastons last june for a few minutes. The stick felt intuitive but I really don't have enough time with them.
 
No matter to me for flying, either side.
Yokes are nice for mounting GPS and moving legs around but sticks could be modified for such uses with a little work too.
 
Hi,

recent convert from the "red" board...

I trained and flew sticks for the first 150 hours... They can be flown hands free with your feet easily and are just more comfortable to fly with.

Now that I have to get serious about flying, IFR training, Yokes seem do it for me, I don't know why...

I've always understood how my sticks were connected to my ailerons, meaning where and how the wires ran... I also understand how my yokes in my Cessna connect to the ailerons...

But, How does the Cirrus sticks connect...? It would seem to need more pulleys?? I really like the Mooney connections system..

PS> Howdy JD!
 
AdamZ said:
Can't really answer that one b/c I have only ever flown Diana's Citabria and Steves IAR at Gastons last june for a few minutes. The stick felt intuitive but I really don't have enough time with them.
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Maybe we need to fly longer this year. :)
 
Greg Bockelman said:
So how do you do it with a yoke, Scott? To me this is a non sequiter.
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Greg Bockelman said:
I got the point. But I have flown a side stick from the right side and I am right handed. It really isn't an issue.
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Er, really? You can fly in the left seat with your right hand stretched to the left across your body and still write with your left hand?

Maybe you can, but I couldn't.
 
jsight said:
Er, really? You can fly in the left seat with your right hand stretched to the left across your body and still write with your left hand?
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Interesting way of interpreting what I said. I flew from the RIGHT seat with my RIGHT hand.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Interesting way of interpreting what I said. I flew from the RIGHT seat with my RIGHT hand.
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Greg, does your experience flying right seat in the Grown Up Airplanes help there?
 
SCCutler said:
Stick flying is definitely more intuitive. I presume that this carries over to side stick, but the only sidestick flying I have done was in a Cirrus, right seat, and flying with my right wand was as unnatural as... well, lots of stuff with my left. I expect the left hand would like sidestick flying just fine.
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Curious, what conventional stick aircraft have you flown left hand on stick? All the stick planes I fly have a left hand for the quadrant and right for stick, with the exception of the DA 40 which is right quadrant and the Robin 2160 which gives you the option.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Why do people think their hand needs to be on the stick 100% of the time? If you are in proper trim, you can fly hands off long enough to jot a note down on a piece of paper.
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That is true except the time that I need to write stuff down on is when ATC uses their uncanny ability to tell when I am the middle of something, like turning, climbing, descending, etc. to give me an instruction that would need to be written down, you know like clearance amendments. Freqs and heading I can deal with without having to write them down.

For the side stick this would mean having to reach over my whole body to grab the stick on the left and then write something down. Not impossible but annoying. I would imagine that the airbus drivers don't have this problem cause they have an FO to write things down or are on full a/p.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Why do people think their hand needs to be on the stick 100% of the time? If you are in proper trim, you can fly hands off long enough to jot a note down on a piece of paper.
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Most planes I'd agree with you on, some though, like the M-18s though, do not take your hand off the stick lest you end up inverted.
 
BTW with the side stick it is not an issue of unable more an issue of unwilling to deal with it when there are better alternatives for lefties on the market. If I am going to plop down a bit of a $1/2 mil on a plane I want it to be comfortable for my purposes.
 
Henning said:
Curious, what conventional stick aircraft have you flown left hand on stick? All the stick planes I fly have a left hand for the quadrant and right for stick, with the exception of the DA 40 which is right quadrant and the Robin 2160 which gives you the option.
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Of course, there have been a LOT of people over the years who had trouble transitioning to that left-handed stick in the Luscombes and Clippers...on the other hand, when my brother first started flying a Spezio Tuholer, he'd fly with his left hand on the stick and his right hand crossed over to the throttle ;)

Fly safe!

David
 
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