I know a guy who flies a Fokker Triplane and he says if you let go of
the controls and leave it to its own devices it slews off into a left
wing down sideslip and will stay like that all the way to the ground.

Helicopters will not fly themselves, either. But, after awhile, you just
get used to it. Pretty soon, you can chew gum while you fly. I even
figured out how to change channels on the radio.

The scale Neuport that I saw was beautiful - but it had a horizontal bar
right in front of the dash and I could not help but wonder where that would
be if the airplane stopped flying before my head did.

Colin