To some extent me too.
I believe the point he was conveying is that the ailerons initiate the bank but the elevator turns the aircraft. Otherwise it would just fly straight on with the one wing down (until that old rascal gravity got busy).
I have a model now (a Contender 60 with a dead-straight full-length wing spar - no dihedral) that if you give it rudder it just crabs ahead at the same altitude and heading without beginning a bank or proper turn for several seconds. Eventually it begins a turn, the nose drops and then it dutch rolls to the OPPOSITE direction of the initial rudder input.
Ailerons initiate bank, elevator initiates pitch, rudder initiates yaw. With a flat-bottomed wing throttle can also be used to control altitude. I say "initiate" because as the aircraft changes attitude the control surfaces have different uses. For example: in knife-edge flight the rudder controls pitch. And the control inputs an airline pilot would use to reverse directions keeping at 1.2G and not spilling passenger drinks are much different than a fighter jock would use to snap around at 7G. Almost any manuever requires ALL sufaces to be operated for perfect execution; some models more than others. Just slamming back the stick can get a loop. but it may not end in the same vertical plane or horizontal plane as it was entered if there was a side-wind or the model is not completely balanced laterally. And to maintain the same speed throughout the loop takes careful throttle management. Most of us can throw the stick over for a roll and some designs can be trimmed or use differential to give a perfect axial one with ailerons alone. But try a two-count hesitating four-point roll on ailerons alone.
That bit of finesse is what keeps experienced pilots flying J-3 Cubs. Operating all the control surfaces in concert instead of just banging through a sloppy but mostly complete maneuver takes every bit as much skill in Pattern, IMAC or 3-D.
I know pilots who have been flying five or more years and never throttle back until it's time to land. But they're happy so who cares?
When I learned to fly R/C it was with a glider and two channels: rudder & elevator. I much prefer the added ailerons. I've also flown aileron and elevator powered models and those (IMHO) make more sense in some cases for a small hand-launched model. Learning on a glider has allowed me over the years to keep a cool head with a dead-stick that I notice a lot of pilots lack. EVERY glider flight is a dead-stick.
