DavidS wrote:
In helicopters, it used to matter once, a long time ago.
Interesting, didn’t know that.
LeSving wrote:
Helicopters – always, doesn’t matter if you sit left or right.
In helicopters, it used to matter once, a long time ago.
Being right-handed, 100% right-hand cyclic improved my (now historic) handling of helicopters, but it meant I could never write anything down. I lost all sense of embarrassment when using the phrase “Say Again” ;-)
GA_Pete wrote:
If I now flew an RV I’d have 2 challenges. Tailwheel and the (more commonly) left throttle.
Which also means becoming efficient with left handed knob twiddling. If I built one I’d consider carefully my preference for right throttle and the possible effect on resale if most prefer left throttle.
The RVs that commonly have left throttle are single and tandem seat variants. The side by side aircraft almost always have engine controls in the center of the panel. A few people set up those aircraft for a right seat pilot, to address their own preference – which is the opposite of yours.
The DR400 has two throttles.
One left and one centre.
In training, Pipers and Cessnas the left hand is on the yoke and the right hand is throttle, mixture, flaps radios and anything else.
As I’m right handed, that’s the perfect combination.
So despite being right handed the best transition to the Robin was left hand stick, right hand centre throttle and everything else.
Makes perfect sense to me.
If I now flew an RV I’d have 2 challenges. Tailwheel and the (more commonly) left throttle.
Which also means becoming efficient with left handed knob twiddling.
If I built one I’d consider carefully my preference for right throttle and the possible effect on resale if most prefer left throttle.
Clearly stick is right hand, everything else left hand. When there is side by side, the person flying sits on the right seat operating stick with right hand, everything else left hand.
)It’s really only GA, single pilot operation side by side cockpit, where this is opposite. And this is odd in more than one way. In all other “operation” you train from the very start using the stick in the right hand, because then you get used to a certain way of doing things. For CPL/ATPL I guess the pilots sit in the left seat as with PPL, yes? Then when getting hired by an airline company it is straight into the right seat for X number of years (right hand stick). After X number of years, it’s back to the left seat again. Clearly also in this case, training in the right seat, and operating single pilot from the right seat would make most sense.
All gliders I know have stick in the middle and flaps on the left side – to steer with the right hand. Just the gear lever is sometimes on the right side – mainly not to confuse with flaps but e.g. in the Blanik I needed both hands to make the gear move anyways ;-)
(P.S.: Sorry – overlap with Xtophe – great minds think alike …)
Gliders are all stick in right hand and airbrakes, flaps, trim in left hand.
I believe Vagabonds left the factory with the throttle in the centre of the panel (implying left hand on stick) but ours has at some point be re-located to the left edge and thus right hand on stick seems natural.
However unless I’m actually operating the throttle control there is little rhyme or reason to which hand I might have on the stick at any given time!
Also in helicopters, stick is always right hand AFAIK.
Left seating for PIC is the odd one (but not really). Thinking of boats for thousand of year have had rudder (and steering) on the right hand side, which some countries have adopted to cars. In boats we have Babord/Styrbord (Port/Starboard in English). Styrbord literally means “steer board” or “steer plank” today, but the original meaning of board/bord is edge, as in the edges of the ship, or the “board” which constitutes the edges, the upper most board. Falling over board for instance is not a good thing
When sailing, the man steering the boat holds the rudder so he faces starboard (steer board) and consequently his back was facing the back board. The original word was backboard (port in English for some odd reason), simplified to babord in Norwegian. If I’m not mistaken it’s still called backbord in Dutch.
Later, ships got the rudder at the centerline, so it didn’t matter, but the words remains.
Now, the guy operating the rudder was typically not the captain or commander of the ship. His name was “styrmann” or “steer man” in English. This is the name even today in Norwegian, also for aircraft. When there are two pilots, as in most larger aircraft, the captain sits in the left seat, and the styrmann (steer man, FO) is in the right seat. So, left seating for the captain, and right seating for the FO (styrmann) is perfectly as per convention from thousands of years
The “problem” is when there is only one pilot on board. The “natural” seating would be on the right side, as it is in Helicopters or right side cars.
So the only correct placing of the levers is steering with the right hand, everything else with the left hand. Stick right hand, throttle and all other stuff left hand. In practice it doesn’t really matter I guess. Most people can fly/drive/sail equally well using whatever hand is available, it’s simply a matter of practice.
Some side-by-side cockpits have two throttles, one in the centre and one on the left. Here is a Zlin Z142:
