A little bit of simple physics works wonders in keeping a plane flying too
What I find difficult to get my head round is how you know where you are when you are moving through 3 dimensions and can travel for thousands of miles and still be able to hit a strip of tarmac 60m wide and a couple of km long...pretty amazing stuff really. The job that ATC do is also mighty fine in helping pilots to keep the SLF and themselves safe, and seems to be often unrecognised by the general public...