Loss of control-inflight remains the top cause of fatal accidents in general aviation and occurs most often while maneuvering. Most pilots memorize the "horizontal component of lift" mantra and learn to perform rudimentary turns under mostly ideal conditions. With the added stress of an emergency or when more complex maneuvering is required, however, pilots often botch their turns -- sometimes catastrophically.
The majority of pilots do not realize that the elevator is their primary turn control. In other words, whether or not the flightpath follows a straight line or the arc of a circle depends not on the bank angle, but largely on what the pilot chooses to do with the elevator.
