Okay, so here’s the thing — the pilot’s basically in constant conversation with the airplane.  
They’ve got their hands on the controls — kind of like a steering wheel called the yoke, or sometimes a side stick — and their feet on pedals for the rudder. Those control the nose pointing up or down, tilting left or right, and even sliding side to side in the air.  

They’re watching the instruments to see speed, altitude, and heading, but they’re also “feeling” the plane — you can tell a lot by the way it responds. If they want to climb, they pull back a little; to turn, they bank the wings; to stay steady, they make tiny adjustments all the time so it’s smooth rather than jerky. A lot of the time in cruise, autopilot helps keep things stable, but the pilot is still ready to take over in a split second if the ride gets bumpy or something changes.  

It’s kind of like driving a car on ice while following invisible roads in the sky — you’re part driver, part listener, part problem fixer.  
Does your brain want to know what happens if the pilot has to handle the plane manually in bad weather? That’s where things get really interesting.