The ERJ’s primary flight controls are the ailerons, elevators, and rudder, and they’re essential for maneuvering

Outline (skeleton)

• Hook: The three primary levers of flight—in every ERJ cockpit, they’re the core trio that makes the airplane do what you tell it to.

• Core idea: Primary flight controls for the ERJ are Ailerons, Elevators, and Rudder. They govern roll, pitch, and yaw.

• Deep dive into each control:

• Ailerons: roll, lateral control, how the wings tilt, why opposite movement happens.

• Elevators: pitch, nose up/nose down, the role of the horizontal stabilizer and the control column.

• Rudder: yaw, pedal input, coordinating turns, crosswinds.

• Distinguish primary vs. secondary controls: Flaps, air brakes, spoilers, speed brakes, trims, autopilot, and throttles—what they do and how they support the primary trio.

• Real-world flavor: Why this matters in SkyWest operations, how pilots feel the surfaces, and how it shows up in KV topics.

• Quick mental models and tips: memorize A-E-R, connect to flight path, use cockpit diagrams, and relate to everyday motion.

• Closing: Respect for the basics, how they anchor safe flying, and a nudge to keep exploring the ERJ’s control logic.

Article: Primary flight controls on the SkyWest ERJ—A-E-R in action

Let me explain something that soundly grounds any pilot-in-training: the primary flight controls are the trio that literally steer the airplane’s fate in the moment. On the ERJ family that SkyWest uses, those essentials are Ailerons, Elevators, and Rudder. A simple trio, but when you pull on those levers and pedals, you’re not just moving metal—you’re shaping the airplane’s destiny through the air.

Here’s the thing about the ERJ cockpit: the layout won’t win any dramatic awards for flash, but it’s tuned for clarity. The primary flight controls are the big three that handle the aircraft’s fundamental motion. If you can picture the three axes—roll, pitch, and yaw—you’re already ahead of the curve. And if you can name the surfaces that manage those axes, you’re on safe ground.

Ailerons: the roll champions

Think of the ailerons as the wings’ playground directors. When you tilt your wings side to side, you’re rolling the airplane—lean left, roll left; lean right, roll right. On the ERJ, the ailerons are tied to the control yoke or side stick (depending on the model you’re flying) and respond to your lateral input. The moment you move the control, one wing’s aileron goes up while the other goes down, creating more lift on one wing and less on the other. That differential is what makes the aircraft tilt and begin a coordinated arc through the sky.

Roll control isn’t just about looking cool in a turn, either. It’s foundational for banked turns, maneuvering in the traffic pattern, and correcting for gusts that try to shove you off your intended track. In crosswinds, the instinct to “crab” versus “wings level” comes back to how you use the ailerons to establish the desired roll rate while staying mindful of the airplane’s overall attitude. In KV topics, you’ll see questions that probe your understanding of how roll couples with the other axes, and that’s where the ailerons prove their worth once again.

Elevators: the pitch maestros

If the roll is about tilt, pitch is about nose attitude. Elevators control pitch, and in the ERJ, that means the nose goes up or down as you command it. Push the control column back, and you raise the nose; push forward, you lower it. The elevators live on the horizontal stabilizer, and their precise movement shapes climb and descent, trim stability, and the airplane’s overall climb angle.

Pitch matters in everything from a gentle climb after takeoff to a coordinated descent for approach. Elevators are also tied to speed management—pitch changes can influence airspeed, which in turn affects how your engines and wings behave in the descent. In KV discussions, you’ll encounter scenarios about maintaining a stabilized approach, where elevator control is part of achieving your target flight path while keeping the airplane’s energy state in balance.

Rudder: the yaw sculptor

The rudder’s job is yaw: movement around the aircraft’s vertical axis. You feel it in the pedals under your feet. When you press a left or right pedal, the rudder surface deflects and helps the airplane yaw toward that direction. The rudder is essential for coordinated turns, especially in crosswind landings or when you need to counter adverse yaw during an engine-out scenario. In flight, you don’t usually “turn with the rudder alone,” but you certainly feel its influence as you coordinate your turns with ailerons and elevators. That coordination—everyone working together—is what keeps the airplane’s trajectory clean and predictable.

Secondary thoughts: how this contrasts with other controls

If you’ve played with secondary controls, you’ll notice they’re helpful but not primary for basic maneuvering. Flaps, air brakes, and spoilers (and their kin) amplify performance—think slower or faster, more lift for a short field, or increased drag for a steeper descent. They augment the flight path but don’t provide the fundamental directional control. Trim devices adjust subtle aspects of control feel and airplane attitude, and autopilot or flight management systems help you maintain stability and follow a flight plan, but they don’t replace the need to understand what the ailerons, elevators, and rudder are doing in the moment.

Why this matters in the SkyWest context

What you learn about these surfaces isn’t just book knowledge; it’s a practical compass. The ERJ’s handling qualities hinge on how these surfaces respond to your input and how the airplane communicates its state back to you. When you’re maneuvering through gusts, aligning with the runway in gusty winds, or performing a precision turn to avoid traffic, you’re relying on the fundamentals—A-E-R—more than any fancy system. And that’s exactly the kind of foundation that KV topics aim to test in a meaningful way: can you reason through what happens to the aircraft if you alter one axis while watching the others drift?

A little analogy might help. Picture driving a car with three adjustable wheels: two on the sides that steer the car (like the ailerons), a steering wheel that tilts the vehicle’s nose up and down on a slope (the elevators), and a pedal that nudges the car’s orientation left or right (the rudder). You don’t rely on one wheel to steer; you rely on all three, coordinated with your mental map of the road. In the ERJ, those three controls work in concert to produce predictable, safe motion through the air—whether you’re cruising over mountains or lining up for a touch-and-go.

Practical mental models you can carry forward

• The A-E-R mnemonic isn’t just a memorization trick; it’s a mental map. A for Ailerons (roll), E for Elevators (pitch), R for Rudder (yaw). If you can hear those words and picture the surfaces, you’ve got a quick reference in the heat of flight or the test scenario in KV topics.

• Coordination matters. The airplane isn’t a single control, but a system of input surfaces that must work together. A gentle roll should be balanced with pitch and yaw so you don’t end up fighting the aircraft.

• Crosswinds stress the system. In wind, you’ll often need a bit more rudder or a slight elevator adjustment to keep the nose lined up with the runway while the wings bank into the turn.

• Feel and feedback. The ERJ gives you a tactile sense of how much pressure is needed to move the control surfaces. That “feel” is part of safe flying and part of what you’ll reflect on in KV as you reason about control behavior in various flight conditions.

A few quick study-oriented tips (without turning this into a checklist)

• Visualize cockpit diagrams. A quick sketch showing where the ailerons, elevators, and rudder sit helps anchor the concept. Then relate each surface to a motion—the roll, pitch, and yaw it produces.

• Connect to real flight scenarios. Imagine a gentle gale affecting your approach. Which controls do you touch first? What’s the sequence that keeps you stabilized and aligned with the runway?

• Use everyday analogies sparingly. A bicycle’s steering and a ship’s rudder can illuminate how the aircraft responds, but remember the air is a different playground with different physics.

• Keep the terminology simple in your head. If you’re unsure, default to “roll for ailerons, pitch for elevators, yaw for rudder.” The clarity pays off when you’re parsing KV questions that mix surfaces in a single scenario.

• Don’t sweat the small jargon. Focus on how each control affects the airplane’s motion. If you can verbalize that effect clearly, you’re building a robust mental model.

A gentle note about tone and takeaway

If you’re exploring these topics in SkyWest’s CQ and KV materials, you’re building a language of flight that pairs precise physics with practical judgment. The primary flight controls—Ailerons, Elevators, and Rudder—aren’t just entries on a checklist. They’re the everyday tools you use to invite the airplane to do what you intend, whether you’re in calm air or chasing a line through a patchy thunderstorm. The better you understand the role each control plays, the more intuitive your responses become when conditions change.

Closing thought: grounding your flying in the basics

The ERJ’s primary flight controls are a compact triad that embodies the essence of aviation: you set a path with intent, then you stay attentive to how the aircraft answers. In SkyWest operations, where precision and safety matter at every altitude, understanding how Ailerons, Elevators, and Rudder shape the flight path isn’t just a testable fact; it’s a daily habit you carry from the simulator into the real sky.

If you’re curious to dive deeper, there are excellent resources that map these surfaces to how the ERJ handles in different configurations and flight conditions. The practical confidence you gain from mastering the trio will echo through every turn, climb, and landing—and that, more than anything, is what makes a pilot truly ready for the skies.