F

FiveNinerTIM

Member
Hello Everybody,

After reading the thread about sizing the shuttle's SRBs, and then one about mounting throttle quadarants, I began to wonder about the history behind placing the PIC in the "left seat".

Specifically, 1) Most people are right handed, and 2) the right seat allows a right handed person to use their "best hand" on the stick, and then their left hand for throttle, mixture etc. which seems to make sense.

I recall that Dan C. mounted his quadrant throttle on the left side of his left PIC seat, and a quick search shows others have also either done this or are considering doing it.

So, how did this come about?

No offense to the "lefties" out there, its just Sunday morning curiousity.

Regards to all,
 
Is it anything to do with the Americans and French driving from the "sinister" as opposed to the British "dexter" side of a car? Perhaps America and France got to set the standard because they were also the earliest practical aviation pioneers.

Just a wild assed guess!

Jim Sharkey
 
Left seat PIC

My guess, and it's just a guess is that when America was being formed the new settlers were determined to do everything differently from back home in Europe. Since a warrior with a sword wanted to have his right side (sword hand) to the middle of the road he rode on the left and they continued the practice. We did the opposite. There was a more rational for driving on the right here though. In America teams of horses were used to haul large loads and the driver didn't start out sitting on the wagon, he sat on the rear left horse to have his strong right hand free to lash the rest of the team with his whip. Since he was sitting on the left he tended to pass oncoming traffic on the right so as to be able to see that he wagon would clear the other traffic. This helped to continue the practice. Since we drive on the right we sit on the left in our cars and continued to do so in our planes.

Maybe someone who really know will chime in...

DaveB
RV6
 
Horses

I think it has to do with cavalry and horse driving.
In the early days, a lot of aviators (in France) came from the cavalry.
We keep a few words in aviation coming from that era (Left HAND circuit or right HAND circuit opposed to left or right circuit). I think that in the cavalry, as David wrote, teams and groups were led from the left side and this remained in aviation.
My 2 cents only.
 
Actually the boating industry has it right. You sit on the right which is the side you must yield to traffic. Traffic to your right has right-of-way. That's why you are showing them a green light.
 
You don't have to follow convention. There are several RVs including both of mine which are right hand drive. Makes more sense to me to have the stick in my right hand and throttle in left as military single seaters do.
 
Since Ann is a pilot,

our RV is set up to solo from either seat. I fly left seat and she flies right seat. Works fine either way. This way we don't have to swap cushions around.
 
The French had some strange conventions "back in the day", like before and through WW I.

The throttle worked in reverse. To go up, you pulled back, increasing throttle. To land, you pushed forward, closing the throttle.

Needless to say, this caused some confusion with American and British pilots flying French aircraft. Eventually, they switched over to back for idle, and forward for full throttle.

Don't forget, although the airplane was an American invention, the French and British where far ahead of us in terms of aircraft design and performance during WW I.
 
The Devil is in the details:rolleyes:


The documentary evidence to support such a claim remains open to interpretation, however, and he does not appear to have developed his aircraft to match the Wrights' achievement of sustained, controlled flight. Pearse himself made contradictory statements which for many years led the few who knew of his feats to accept 1904 as the date of his first flight. The lack of any chance of industrial development, such as spurred the Wrights to develop their machine, seems to have suppressed any recognition of Pearse's achievements.
 
Nothing in the FAR's say anything about which seat to use for what. It is entirely a contrivance made up by.......us.;)
 
I plan on building my plane for right seat PIC. Afterall, I used to own a RHD vehicle. :D
 
smoore said:
Not my theory but it makes sense.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that wasn't an issue back then :p ;)

My understanding is that it was to let women who weren't driving be on the safe side and be able to come in and out from the street side. Just like you're supposed to walk down the street with your lady on the building side.
 
Sorry to continue the side-thread, but even the Wright brothers acknowledged that the first man-carrying aeroplane was invented in Yorkshire in 1853 with Sir George Cayley's glider.

I agree it probably has more to do with maritime conventions that SBS crew have the skipper in the LH seat and pass "Larboard to larboard".

But that doesn't explain (most) helicopters.
 
I don't recallhis name but the airplane, I am certain, was invented recently by the same guy that invented the internet. He also decreed PIC left of center right before he won an international award for saving the world.
 
Mark Albery said:
even the Wright brothers acknowledged that the first man-carrying aeroplane was invented in Yorkshire in 1853 with Sir George Cayley's glider.
Click to expand...

Thats somwhat analogous to saying the elevator was invented by the first guy to jump off a cliff. :)
 
I was born to be the Captain

One) Historically, biblically, "right hand MAN", "Sitting at the right hand of.....", seems to me, No. 2 or second bean, always sits to the right of the King, Captain. So sitting to the left puts the second in command to the right?

Two) Left hand pattern is standard? Cars are left hand drive? Some one had to decide way back when and it stuck.

Three) I was born to be Captain, because I'm left handed. The fold out writing boards, on the Boeing, are under each of the side windows. So the left seat (Captain's) has the writing board on the left :D (However most people are right handed, so the left seat might be to assure the Captain's has their strong hand free, to beat the Co-pilot? Beating co-pilots is more important than writing? I pump iron to assure my right beating hand is strong. :rolleyes: )​

My first time in the right seat, solo was weird. I was in my twenties, working on my CFI. I co-owned a Piper and decided, I'll just fly from the right seat today, to get ready for my CFI training. It was Weird! I did not scare me, but I felt discombobulated the first few times around the pattern. Now it does not matter what side I fly. In airline training you often train in the Sims with two Captains or two FO's together. So you get use to both seats. I like the left seat more, it pays more. :D
 
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N941WR said:
"back in the day", like before and through WW I.

The throttle worked in reverse. To go up, you pulled back, increasing throttle. To land, you pushed forward, closing the throttle.
Click to expand...

I had always heard that the engine on WW I birds was controlled by moving the mag switch off and on, no throttle, just windmill and WOT. No hard facts...just rumors heard over the years.
 
For Airline Guys...

Do captains have the "option" of flying from either the right or left seat, or is it mandated they fly only from the left?
 
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