Definition
An acquired pilot skill, developed through experience, that combines the ability to sense the airplane's flight attitude, speed, and condition through feel of the flight controls, and to apply the correct, smooth, and properly timed control pressures in response.
Plain English
It's the feel a pilot develops for the airplane through the controls — knowing what the airplane is doing and how much pressure to apply, without having to think it through.
Context Anchor
You will see this idea early in flight training when learning how to use the control wheel or stick and the rudder pedals smoothly.
Derivation
From 'control' (the flight controls — yoke, rudder, throttle) and 'touch' in the sense of a refined skill or feel, as in 'a light touch' or 'the artist's touch.' The phrase captures the idea that handling an airplane well is partly a learned sensitivity, not just mechanical operation.
Why Pilots Care
Good control touch reduces the tendency to overcontrol, prevents oscillations in pitch or bank, and leads to smoother, safer flight especially during training and instrument work.
Intuition Check
Do not read control touch as merely touching the controls. Here it means the skill of feeling and applying the right amount of control pressure.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor noted that the student's control touch had improved — the airplane no longer porpoised on landing flare.
Example Sentence 2
With better control touch the pilot made small rudder corrections without causing the nose to yaw excessively.