The primary RC airplane controls
The number of rc airplane controls necessary or required differs between planes, the simplest radio controlled 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 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 channel plane, 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, ailerons and rudder. The elevator, ailerons and rudder are known as control surfaces and the picture below shows where these main controls are located on a typical 4 channel aerobatic rc airplane....
Above: location of ailerons, elevators and rudder on an rc airplane
Which controls do what?
Throttle
Throttle controls the speed of the engine.
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 just rely on elevator inputs to adjust 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. 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. It's worth noting that a plane can still fly level with a nose-up attitude (i.e. not climb) but a nose-down attitude will almost always result in the plane entering a dive, thanks to our friend gravity!
Very basic rc airplanes might not have elevator control; motor control may be the primary way of controlling altitude.
Elevators are 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 from nose to tail).
Ailerons come 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.
When used to turn the plane aileron input is applied first to roll the plane in the desired direction, and then up elevator is applied to pitch the nose round in that same direction; the end result is a banked turn. Ailerons are also used in many aerobatic maneuvers where rolling the airplane is necessary.
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. Nose wheels are often connected to the rudder servo and tail wheels directly to the rudder (or its own servo) on many planes, making the wheel steerable and ground handling much easier.
Other RC airplane controls
Other controls found on more complex rc airplanes include flaps 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.
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 surface 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.
Proportional RC airplane controls
You'll often see the word proportional when looking at rc radio 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!
Discuss rc airplane controls in the forum.
Related pages
How airplanes fly - how natural forces and airplane controls work together.
How to fly airplanes - RC flight school for beginners.
Training methods - the main ways of learning how to fly radio control aircraft.
RC flight simulators - the safest way of learning.
RC flying do's and don'ts - some basic safety tips.
RC flying FAQ - some common questions about getting in to rc flying.
RC flying glossary - meaning to common flying phrases and words.
Differential aileron - what it is and what it does.
