Abstract The paper aims to design and simulate three discrete components which could be incorporated into the simulation of a fully autonomous fixed wing UAV carrying out an ariel survey of a given area. The non-linear dynamic model of a fixed wing UAV is linearised and decoupled into two discrete state space models to allow a simple control scheme consisting of four PID controllers to be implemented. The dynamics and control scheme were simulated in Simulink to analyse the response of the state variable and the response of the control scheme to time-varying reference values. The results show the controllers to adequately control the UAV in straight flight with small deviations from trim as well as in turns of constant radius with small deviations from trim however external effects such as wind or measurement inaccuracies are not considered. It can be concluded that the approximations made along with the PID control are adequate to control the dynamics of the UAV in certain, specific flight conditions.