I've flown a little power but stick mostly to gliders. I've been flying off and on for a few years and am just starting to find my "groove" and get really comfortable at the sticks. I have one question that nobody has yet been able to answer to my satisfaction and that is : why do we pull back to go up?

The answers I have gotten have mostly been that if "feels more natural" or "that's how the full scale guys do it." I agree about the feel and know the full scale guys do it like this but why? Another answer I got was that you are pushing the stick in the direction the tail needs to go. If that were true wouldn't we push the stick to the left to go right?

I was trying to teach a friend to fly on Real-flight and she asked me about the pull back; go up thing and the only thing I could come up with (besides the above answers) was that the idea, kinda, is to keep the stick perpendicular to the floor of the cockpit (as if you were sitting in it). This would also explain how ailerons function, basically. But that doesn't explain why, but rather gives a way to visualize the way it works. Kinda.

Can any or you knowledgeable souls out there in the ether help clarify this for me?

worm