From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houca!hogpc!houxm!mhuxa!mhuxj!mhuxt!mhuxh!mhuxi!macrev
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Sticks and Yokes
Article-I.D.: mhuxi.38
Posted: Fri Apr 29 11:23:32 1983
Received: Sat Apr 30 05:58:56 1983


       I've been watching the stick/yoke discussion with some
       interest, and I'd like to comment and perhaps add a new
       dimension.  I'm not a pilot, but I did spend a lot of years
       keeping flight simulators running, and you might say I've
       "flown" many different types of aircraft.  I cannot comment
       on yokes in small, private aircraft -- perhaps they have
       them for comfort, as someone has suggested.  Big aircraft
       however, have a practical need for a yoke -- there are times
       when they must be literally wrestled into control.
       Sometimes the combined efforts of the pilot and copilot are
       needed.  Sticks are one-handed controls -- yokes provide
       two-handed control.  Even with hydraulically- assisted
       control surfaces, the control loading (the artificial
       feedback the pilot feels as he moves the yoke or rudder
       pedals) can be tremendous.

       In fighter aircraft, the stick is low and between the knees.
       One hand is on the stick, and the other does the things a
       copilot, and engineer, a navigator, a gunner, or an EWO
       would do on a larger airplane.  In some fighter aircraft,
       only the grip portion of the stick moves, and the aircraft
       is controlled by very small movements of the wrist.  Control
       loading is all but done away with -- the pilot has no
       trouble moving his control surfaces even at very high
       speeds.

       So much for the practical reasons for sticks and yokes in
       military aircraft.  Now I have a question for you glider
       pilots -- Is there enough room in your cockpits for a yoke?
       They generally require more forward and backward travel than
       a stick.  They're also heavier.  And wider.  And I would
       guess that the linkage would be a little more complicated
       than that of a stick.
-- 
Mike Lynch
BTL Short Hills, NJ
mhuxi!macrev