Definition
The combined and complementary use of throttle and elevator inputs to manage the airplane's total energy state, where the throttle primarily controls the addition or reduction of energy and the elevator primarily controls how that energy is distributed between altitude (potential energy) and airspeed (kinetic energy).
Plain English
Working the throttle and elevator together as a team. The throttle decides how much energy the airplane has, and the elevator decides whether that energy goes into climbing, descending, speeding up, or slowing down.
Context Anchor
Seen when learning how the flight controls manage energy, especially during climbs, descents, slow flight, approaches, and go-arounds.
Derivation
Throttle comes from an old word related to the throat, because a throttle valve controls how much air-fuel flow the engine can take in. Elevator describes the tail control surface that helps raise or lower the airplane’s nose. Coordination comes from a word meaning to arrange things together in order. The term points to arranging power and pitch inputs so they work together.
Why Pilots Care
Improper coordination produces unwanted airspeed or altitude deviations that increase workload and can lead to stalls, overspeeds, or inefficient flight.
Grounding Statement
If the airplane starts getting slow or drifting off the desired path, the pilot usually needs a matched power-and-pitch correction, not a random movement of one control.
Intuition Check
Do not think of the throttle as only the “speed control” and the elevator as only the “up-and-down control.” In flight, power and pitch affect each other, so they must be coordinated.
Example Sentence 1
During the descent to pattern altitude, the instructor demonstrated throttle-elevator coordination by reducing power and gently lowering the nose to maintain the target airspeed.
Example Sentence 2
In level cruise the instructor demonstrated throttle-elevator coordination by making small, simultaneous adjustments to keep airspeed exactly on target.