The Stick Chief refers to the aircraft controls that employ a stick as opposed to a yoke. And why would anyone do that, you ask? In the late 1930s, then President Rosevelt, put the country on a war footing and declared the US would need 25,000 pilots. He was informed by the Navy and Army Air Core that they had neither the aircraft, personnel nor facilities to undertake the effort. To that end, civilian flight schools were pressed into service with several military officers overseeing civili...