Sidestick
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A control joystick located beside the seat of the pilot.
"The FDR showed that the captain immediately applied back pressure on his sidestick to arrest the pitch-down movement. The aircraft’s flight control system did not initially respond to the captain’s sidestick input, but after about 2 seconds the aircraft responded normally and the captain commenced recovery to the assigned altitude. During this 2-second period the aircraft descended about 150 ft. Overall, the aircraft descended 690 ft over 23 seconds before returning to FL370."
- 2 A sloped or beveled piece of wood or metal placed against the side of a page that is being typeset, and locked in place by quoins. historical
"The sidesticks should be of the full length of the page, and abut against the headsticks on the outside of the form ."
Example
More examples"The FDR showed that the captain immediately applied back pressure on his sidestick to arrest the pitch-down movement. The aircraft’s flight control system did not initially respond to the captain’s sidestick input, but after about 2 seconds the aircraft responded normally and the captain commenced recovery to the assigned altitude. During this 2-second period the aircraft descended about 150 ft. Overall, the aircraft descended 690 ft over 23 seconds before returning to FL370."
Etymology
From side + stick.
More for "sidestick"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.