Pic is not always on the right side in helos, but for my 2 cents its the most logical. The ones ive flown PIC left sucked from a
few perspectives:

The collective (power & MR pitch) is on the left side. Once you're in cruise flight you can let go of this. This frees your left
hand for playing with the avionics stack. The stick is in your right hand, and you really dont want to be letting go of it too
often. It arguably requires more stick finesse to fly a chopper than a plane, and since most ppl are right handed, this makes sense.
Once you get enough time in a helo you'll probably have acquired the dubious skills of flying in cruise with either your knees or
left handed, but you'd never try hovering this way.

Several accidents have been caused by left seat IP/CFI's trying to fly the chopper with their left hand while goofing with radios,
mixtures, etc. for a student while too close to the ground. Not only did they not have as much finesse, but they would have had to
switch hands again to change power/pitch.

Bart


"Tim" wrote in message ...
On another forum, the question has been raised as to why the pilot in a heli
usually sits on the right (excepting tandem cockpit arrangements,
obviously!), when in a fixed wing aircraft the PIC sits on the left. Does
anyone here know the definitive answer? In fact, IS there a definitive
answer, or is it just because that's the way they've developed?

After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it's maybe to do with
ergonomics, in that with your left arm reaching down to the side to the
collective and right arm out in front, you tend to get better visibility to
the right as it's more comfortable twisting that way, e.g. when coming in to
land in a tight spot. BTW I am NOT a heli pilot, (not full scale ones
anyway) so I am quite prepared to be wrong!!

Thanks all,

Tim


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