Right seat flying

Matt Whiting wrote:
The FAA isn't always logical. I got a third email from Amy and she said
an acquaintance of hers was a student pilot and went up with another
pilot (not an instructor) and was flying in the left seat. The FAA
caught wind of this and made the claim that the student was acting as
PIC because they were the sole manipulator of the controls and was
seated in the left seat which is traditionally the seat occupied by the
PIC. Since another person was in the airplane at the time, the student
lost their certificate for 120 days for carrying a passenger illegally.

She said this was challenged and was upheld in court. I don't know all
the details and am not going to send Amy a 4th email, but I have no
reason to doubt what she's saying. I've read enough stories about FAA
actions and NTSB appeals to know that logic seems often absent in these
proceedings.


Matt

The notion that a student pilot can't handle the controls
from the left seat, but an unrated passenger can seems
beyond even FAA illogic. Similarly, the notion that
it would be okay if the student were in the right seat, but
a problem from the left seat seems completely crazy.

You could construct scenarios in which I could imagine them
going after a student, though. I suppose if a student owned
a tailwheel plane and was signed off to fly it, and asked me
to go up for a ride, given that I am not capable of being PIC
for that plane, its possible the FAA might go after the student
for carrying a passenger. And since there would be no legal
PIC on the plane, I guess the FAA might decide that given that
the student was the sole manipulator of the controls and sitting
in the "typical" PIC seat that they would go after the student's
license rather than mine.

I'm going to guess that it was some scenario of this sort where
there was no legal PIC despite a pilot and a student pilot being
in the plane, and they used the seat position plus who was
handling the controls to decide who to prosecute. If so, that's
very different from "you can't allow a student pilot to fly
from the left seat if you are not a CFI."

--
David Rind

David Rind wrote:

The notion that a student pilot can't handle the controls
from the left seat, but an unrated passenger can seems
beyond even FAA illogic. Similarly, the notion that
it would be okay if the student were in the right seat, but
a problem from the left seat seems completely crazy.

My guess is that this was just part of a collection of evidence trying to
establish the pilot's intent. I know nothing about this particular case,
but let's assume that you have the following:

1. There are two people in the plane.
2. The student pilot owns the plane.
3. The other occupant is a licensed private pilot, but not an instructor.
4. The other occupant's logbook shows that he has never been PIC of this
plane before.
5. The other occupant is not on the insurance for the plane.

Now, imagine that you're an investigator, and your job is to decide the
student pilot's actual intent. Obviously, there's nothing illegal about
flying from the right seat, but when you put that together with the other
evidence, it might be enough to convince you that the student pilot was, in
fact, intending to fly as PIC in the left seat.

This is purely hypothetical, of course, since I don't know the details of
the actual case, but if something like this did happen, it would be a gross
overreaction to say that the FAA had ruled that flying from the right seat
was illegal. It's similar to a case where an accused burgler was seen
driving slowly past your house the day before a robbery -- there's nothing
illegal about driving slowly past a house, but together with other evidence
(such as fingerprints, lack of alibi, or possession of some stolen
property), it can help to convince a judge or jury that the accused person
is actually guilty.


All the best,


David