In praise of the center stick (and stick versus yoke)

I’ve never had a particular presence.

I like the Auster stick arrangement, basically instead of going straight down to the floor, it does a 45 degree bend a bit under the handle, then another again, to reach an assembly under the panel. It means the stick doesn’t get in the way of getting in and out of the plane.

When the DA42 came out, the view in the US (where they tried hard to sell them to ATP schools) was that the centre stick was not a good idea, because it prevented the use of a normal kneeboard.

One may laugh at this but it may have been a big factor in its lack of success out there.

I really recommend the Flyboys A5 kneeboards – google brings them up – as they contour to thigh and keep extra bits like pens handy

I can manage A5 + Ipad on the Diamonds (although these days it’s mostly iPad + iPen, with some paper backup stored nearby)

I’ve done some 2h flights in IMC hand flown (“just for fun”), and the ability to do small corrections with a nudge of a finger or even the thigh is great.

I was a pit puzzled by the title, “center stick”.

IMO a stick is a stick, a yoke is a yoke. The difference is that a mechanically a yoke is has a (felt) translation in pitch and (felt) rotation in roll, whereas a stick has a (felt) pivoting in both roll and pitch. There could be combinations, pivoting in pitch, rotation in roll for instance, which would still make it a yoke due to the felt rotation in roll.

Anyway, a center stick is IMO placed between the left and right seat, as in a Jabiru or CH series of aircraft:

Then we have the side stick, like in the Airbus and many US fighters.

An ordinary “stick” is placed between the legs (obviously )

A Cirrus has a side yoke. Looks like a stick, but feels like a yoke

I don’t know if your definition is globally apliccable. Like in the Glasflügel gliders. You wouldn’t call this a yoke, would you?

I think the terms are a bit vague and in his text, MedEwok was quite understandable

LeSving wrote:

I was a pit puzzled by the title, “center stick”.

Me too, I was thinking of a centrally mounted stick

I have a reasonable amount of time on centre sticks in the KZ VII as well as side stick (ie in you left hand) in the Cessna Corvalis. Both are really good setups as they free up space, put you in an arm-chair-like position and make it easy to shift your position on longer flights, etc. If doing aerobatics, I agree that a centre stick gives more authority but mostly due to the leverage needed.

I have always been puzzled by the decision to put a stick in the DA42 and it is a key reason for me to not consider them. They have even repeated it in the DA62. Not so much due to the kneeboard think, but because your passenger can’t cross the legs or move around in the seat.

As mh already said, the question here is not stick vs yoke, but that the Aquila is very probably (I have not flown one, but I usually fly other ULM/VLA types) much more responsive than the TB or the 172. It’s like comparing to drive a BMW Z4 35i on a curvy secondary road against a 520d in a straight highway.

Having said that, I prefer sticks. But it’s only a personal thing, and alternating between stick and yoke takes only one fraction of a second to feel confortable with any of them.

I don’t know if there is any globally applicable definition. If it feels like a stick, then it’s a stick IMO. The Cirrus “side stick” does not feel like a stick. The Jabiru stick is also odd. Technically it rotates in roll, but in such a way it works and feels like a stick, probably because it pivots in pitch? I have never even sat in a Glaslügel.

A yoke is a push/pull and turn device. A stick is a left/right and fwd/aft device, it’s symmetric in movement. The turning turning of a yoke requires large movements to make sense somehow, whereas a stick does not. I don’t know, certainly a different feel. Apparently just about anything works judging by all the different designs and layouts.