left or right?

vulcan57

Just a quick question. Why is it that a captain on a helicopter sits in the right hand seat and on a fixed wing aircraft he sits in the the left seat?

tracker-man

The reason pilots (at least the Captain or PIC) sit on the left side has to do with original 2-seat single-engine prop-driven planes, and Newton's third law which states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.

In most original aircraft engine designs, the aircraft propellor rotated to counterclockwise when viewed from the pilot's seat. Mr. Newton says that when you apply power, the aircraft will rotate along its longitudinal axis clockwise, or to the right. Therefore, if the pilot occupies the left seat when s/he is flying by him/herself, then that slight change in the lateral Center of Gravity will help compensate for the prop torque. So the left seat PIC position has been standard practice since the 1930's, even though more modern props turn clockwise.

On multi-engine planes and all large jets, there is no torque effect, and both pilot positions have equal controls, instrumentation and visibility. It is just a custom that the PIC sits on the left. There is certainly no advantage in flying one side or the other.

As for single-pilot helicopters, some types can only be flown from the L (eg, civilian Hughes 500), other types only from the R (eg, Bell 206, most Astars, A109), and other types can be flown from either side (EC120, Bell 212). This has to do with the lateral center of gravity and dissymmetry of lift from the rotating wing. I personally prefer to fly a helicopter from the R seat for normal operations (even though I flew 767's from the L seat for 22 years) because the cyclic is normally operated by your R hand, and that makes it easier to work radios and navigation systems with your left hand. When it comes to long lining, I have no preference L vs R, as long as the pilot's seat is close enough to the edge of the aircraft so you can see the load.

Thats just something i pulled off the web, I don't know really why its done this way, it really makes very little difference, just having a uniform design and method would be reason enough to say all fixed wing pilots should be on the left IMO.

Also in fixed wing anyway, you have you right hand free to operate throttle etc. The right hand is for the majority of people the stonger hand.

Davidth88

Interestingly this was a question I asked a Canadian AF guy when I was being shown round a CAF helecopter on board a ship.

He said it was because it allowed the Captain to see the winch... however now I have read tracker-man's reply , that makes more sense because not all helecopters have winches

Tenger

I can remember being told that Soviet aircrews were reversed. (Capt on right,F/O on left)

Was told this on a tour of inside the Soviet Space Shuttle in Sydney.