Sorry to disappoint so many of you, but the elevator is not the up and down control, it is the speed controller. Not just at MCA or during landing but in all flight. I fly full-size, all sorts from 1930s biplanes to military jets, and the rule of elevator to control speed is an absolute in all aircraft at all speeds in all flight phases. Power is the height controller. Of course you can make changes to height by pulling back on the stick if you have enough surplus speed but all you do is swap speed for height and the aircraft's energy does not change. I suggest that you hire a Tiger Moth and when it is trimmed in the cruise, try pulling gently back on the elevator. For about 2 seconds you gain a few feet, then the speed drops drastically and you start losing height. The more you pull back, the faster you go down. Even in a jet fighter the speed responds instantly to elevator, they just tend to have so much speed above stall in normal cruise that they it takes some time for the swap of all surplus speed into height to happen.

All aircraft from the tiniest free flight model to a B747 gain height as power is increased and lose height as power is decreased. It is written into the laws of nature. An object has an energy, it is only we humans that separate it into kinetic and potential energies for the sake of calculations. To increase height but keep the same speed, an object must have its energy increased and the only way to do this is to add power. Using ele will just leave the plane higher but slower and it must now descend back down to regain the same speed it started with!

What we seek to do is avoid the violent pitch change that some models have and downthrust helps this, but beyond that it is vital that all new beginners learn that to go up they increase power and to go down the reduce power, with the elevator being used to set the plane's attitude and hence its speed.

Harry