Question - Flying a Foxbat from the Right Seat

[SSCBD]

Real flying question, as the Foxbat has the throttle on the right side I have been flying a Foxbat from the right hand seat. This is due to that I learnt and prefer plus cannot fly with controls in right hand nearly as well. This makes it the correct sense of the control stick in left hand and throttle in right.

 

I have no problem with accessing or using the instruments or switches etc. from the right seat, so please don't start on that point as its fine.

 

So the question is - are other people doing this when the throttle is on the wrong side from their training then flying the Foxbat or any other aircraft like that?

 

 

[Mick]

I trained control column right hand, throttle left. I was worried when I bought an aircraft and it was the opposite. I shouldn't have worried, it only took a couple of hours to get totally comfortable flying with the other hand. Now I can fly either way without really giving it any thought. I would suggest you take the time to get comfortable with both and that way you will not feel limited to which aircraft you can fly.

 

The left seat / right seat thing has been discussed here before and some said you can, some said you can't. I can tell you I was advised in writing by a previous Op's Manager that if the POH indicates PIC sits left, then you can only sit right seat if an instructor. Let the argument begin................

 

 

[Camel]

I believe the rules indicate that the pilot must have full access to all controls and instruments and if that can be done from either seat then it is fine. It is a big diference initially swapping seats as I use both left and right seat but have a comfort preference for left seat as centre stick and I'm right handed.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

I trained control column right hand, throttle left. I was worried when I bought an aircraft and it was the opposite. I shouldn't have worried, it only took a couple of hours to get totally comfortable flying with the other hand. Now I can fly either way without really giving it any thought. I would suggest you take the time to get comfortable with both and that way you will not feel limited to which aircraft you can fly...

Same here. All the aircraft I flew or trained in had sticks, either between my knees or center, and throttle in left hand. Then I bought the Legend with Yokes and throttle in the center. I gave some serious consideration to having it built with the pilots controls on the right hand side, but opted for a conventional setup in the end. It only took a couple of hours, as Mick said, to get used to flying it left handed with throttle in right hand.

 

 

[Yenn]

You can fly from either seat, but the advantage of flying in the left seat is that it is usually correct for circuits and also the convention when following a feature such as highway or beach is to fly to the right of it, that means it is on your side of the plane.

 

 

[Guest SrPilot]

You can fly from either seat, but the advantage of flying in the left seat is that it is usually correct for circuits and also the convention when following a feature such as highway or beach is to fly to the right of it, that means it is on your side of the plane.

Humm, Yenn. I would have thought in a Starlet that you'd be "seat-captured." (I know I was in my RV-3A and CJ6A - only one seat in the center of the airplane; no choices there either). [Well, the CJ has a rear seat but the front seat is the pilot's position.]

I agree with Yenn that the advantage to left-seating is flying highways or patterns (circuits) because of the conventions involved. I've flown left, right, yoke, stick between knees, center stick, throttle on panel, left and right throttles, etc and in each case it only took a few minutes to get familiar with the setup. But for me left-seat is better for pattern (circuit) work. Unless of course you have the best of all worlds in planes like the Corby Starlet, RV-3A or CJ6A with the center seating. The pilot can look out either side quite well. I fly my A22LS (with center y-stick and side throttles) from the left seat but I've flown from the right seat in an A22LS too. I just prefer the left seat in that airplane due to instrument placement and control layout. Hard to reach some knobs from the right seat.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Most who learned GA in a C150 or C152 were left seat and left hand on the yoke with the right on the centre throttle. As a student we had a club comp day when we swapped seats with the instructor. I stuffed it up completely on the first landing but got used to it. Now I don't give it a second thought. What I don't like is the poor ergonomics of many cockpits where they position flap switches and carb heat controls etc in awkward locations so you have to swap hands to operate them. I have the throttle on the right side wall in a nacelle with carb heat & flap switch withing finger reach, a centre stick & toe brakes. I don't like hand operated brakes.