Coordinated flight is the act of an airplane moving with the least resistance (drag) through the air. In coordinated flight the nose and tail of the airplane follow one another along the path of motion. The minimum amount of the side of the airplane (hull or fuselage) is impacted by the air mass. Coordinate flight is most important during turns. Look up Drag in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A hull is the body or frame of a ship or boat. ... The fuselage can be short, and seemingly unaerodynamic, as in this Christen Eagle 2 The fuselage (from the French fuselé spindle-shaped) is an aircrafts main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. ...

An airplane has three axis of rotation. The axis of rotation of a rotating body is a line such that the distance between any point on the line and any point of the body remains constant under the rotation. ...

Pitch - in which the nose of the airplane moves up or down. This is controlled by the elevator (aircraft) at the rear of the airplane (typically). For other meanings of elevator see Elevator (disambiguation). ...

Yaw - in which the nose of the airplane moves left right. This is controlled by the rudder at the rear of the airplane (typically). Stern-mounted steering oar of an Egyptian riverboat depicted in the Tomb of Menna (c. ...

Roll (bank) - in which one wing of the airplane moves up while the other moves down. This is controlled by ailerons on the wings of the airplane (typically). Aileron location on a Piper PA-28. ...

Coordinated flight involves the simultaneous use of roll and yaw (both ailerons and rudder).

If the pilot was to simply use the rudder to make a turn in the air, the airplace would tend to "skid" around the turn. This would present the side of the airplane to the air causing increased drag. This might be like trying to run around a curve on a track without leaning. This is known as a "flat turn".

If the pilot was to simply use the ailerons to make a turn in the air the airplane would tend to drop towards the lower wing. This would both lose altitude and again present the side of the airplane to the air causing increased drag. This might be like trying to run straight forward while leaning over.

However, if the pilot uses both the rudder and ailerons to make the turn, then the airplane will be in coordinated flight with the least amount of drag. It may help to visualize a motorcycle or bicycle making a turn. The rider will rotate the handlebars (rudder) and also naturally lean (ailerons) during the turn.