Right seat policies

Mxsmanic wrote:

Yes, but I presume that outside of flight instruction, it's unusual to
put someone else in the left seat (especially if that someone is not a
pilot).

Actually, it's the comfort level of the pilot in flying from the
right side. Instructors spend almost all their time in the right
seat so they don't have any problems flying there. Most pilots
are inexperienced and extremely uncomfortable flying from the
right side. Of course, the other problem is that most of the
instruments are set up to be convenient for the left seat pilot
and as you go up in complexity you find that the right seat
controls sometimes aren't as complete. For example, in my
plane there are no brakes on the right side, so I wouldn't put
anybody but an experienced pilot in the left seat.

It looks like most aircraft have some things that are only accessible
from the left side, although I guess all the important stuff is
duplicated (?).

Actually, just the yoke and the rudder pedals in most planes. Most
light aircraft are small enough that you can see all the other
instruments from the right side. I actually got to fly in the
right seat of a Bonanza that had right side basic instruments
as well, but that's pretty uncommon.

Sylvain wrote:


Flying kids can be fun though; ever volunteered to fly 'Young Eagles'?
In my (limited) experience, they don't mess with stuff when flying;
actually the only really disruptive passengers I have had were
adults,

I fly Young Eagles. Some where around 11 or 12 you can find
a kid interested in aviation and I find the most interested one
and put him in the right side so he can have the opportunity
to control the aircraft. Younger than ten, they tend to chatter
away like it was an amusement park ride so I don't bother.

Emily wrote:

Nah. I don't like being around children much anyway. I wouldn't say I
hate them, but I don't want to go out of my way to be around them. I'll
stick with teaching adults to fly.

Today's young innocent faces, are tomorrow's clientele.

Of course, it was flying YE that I had my engine failure. The kids
(8 year old cub scouts) were ready to go up again. I had to point
out that I didn't think my plane was going to be able to fly again.

What was nicer was two out of the three parents actually waited around
the airport until I was done dealing with the state police and other
hassles to thank me for bringing their kids back alive. Similarly,
I got a letter from the EAA YE office thanking me for not killing any
Young Eagles.

Ron Natalie wrote:
Emily wrote:

Nah. I don't like being around children much anyway. I wouldn't say
I hate them, but I don't want to go out of my way to be around them.
I'll stick with teaching adults to fly.

Today's young innocent faces, are tomorrow's clientele.

Of course, it was flying YE that I had my engine failure.

I had my cousin in the plane during my first complete avionics failure.
My friend and I laughed through the entire thing...we'd been in solid
IMC in the same plane the day before and were just so relieved it held
off that all we could do was laugh. Anyway, it was just your average
run of the mill failure in VFR. Once everything died and my friend and I
took our headsets off on final, she thought something was REALLY wrong.
I guess we didn't explain that the engine would keep turning.

My cousin freaked out once we got home. Her parents lectured me to no
end about how dangerous it was and how she shouldn't have even been with
me and how I needed to take flying more seriously (they were upset that
I thought the whole thing was funny). They'd thought she was sitting at
the airport while I went to fly. So yeah, I guess I would hate to deal
with parents.

But seriously, it was funny! Her first time in a small airplane and the
entire stack decides to die and we end up with light gun signals.
Light gun signals! I went years without seeing that. g

On Oct 15, 5:03 pm, Emily wrote:
Strange question. I don't really care who sits in the right seat,
although I've never flown children. I don't think I'd like a child in
the front, they mess with stuff. I even let pretty much anyone fly...my
brother once made a 90 degree turn in IMC and it was the highlight of
his month (and a near heart attack for me).

I was taking a cousin, his wife, and one of his kids for a flight
once... I put the lighter people in the back (i.e. the wife and kid)...
I told my cousin that under no circumstances was he to touch the
controls... I even asked them if any of them had a tendency for motion
sickness and if so, there were some plastic bags in the pouches behind
the front seats... Of course, they wanted to go see their place from
the air and during one of the turns while orbiting the place, my cousin
panics and grabs the yoke in a death grip... I proceeded to put my
right elbow into his ribs / chest with a force sufficient to break his
grip, if not also break his ribs... The teenage kid also got sick and
puked in the plane, not managing to get it into the plastic bag...
That's been quite a few years ago and come to think of it, I don't
think that I've seen or talked to any of them since then... Moral of
the story -- don't fly with anyone in the front seat that you're not
willing or able to knock unconscious if it comes to that... Secondary
moral of the story, use large barf bags and tie them over the kid's
head before the flight -- it's not like they have any brain cells that
could be killed from the lack of oxygen anyway...

My daughter sometimes flies up front in the right seat, sometimes in
the rear... When she was younger, she was all that keen about staying
in one place, so she would climb forward to look over the seats one
minute and climb back to look into the baggage area the next minute...
Let's just say that trying to keep an aircraft trimmed for a constant
altitude in this sort of situation ends up being a constant battle...

Ron Natalie wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote:

Yes, but I presume that outside of flight instruction, it's unusual to
put someone else in the left seat (especially if that someone is not a
pilot).

Actually, it's the comfort level of the pilot in flying from the
right side. Instructors spend almost all their time in the right
seat so they don't have any problems flying there. Most pilots
are inexperienced and extremely uncomfortable flying from the
right side. Of course, the other problem is that most of the
instruments are set up to be convenient for the left seat pilot
and as you go up in complexity you find that the right seat
controls sometimes aren't as complete. For example, in my
plane there are no brakes on the right side, so I wouldn't put
anybody but an experienced pilot in the left seat.

But ... I put both of my kids in the left seat AT ALTITUDE with an
instructor in the right seat. The Navion is roomy enough that I could
take off with the instructor in the right seat and get up to altitude,
hand the controls over to the instructor and then switch seats with the
kids who were in the back.

Margy

It looks like most aircraft have some things that are only accessible
from the left side, although I guess all the important stuff is
duplicated (?).


Actually, just the yoke and the rudder pedals in most planes. Most
light aircraft are small enough that you can see all the other
instruments from the right side. I actually got to fly in the
right seat of a Bonanza that had right side basic instruments
as well, but that's pretty uncommon.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

In small aircraft, if I understand correctly, there's no law that says
you can't put anyone you want in the right seat, as long as there's a
licensed pilot in command.

The one time I flew a plane I sat in the left seat. Yes, I
had the controls. No it was not a lesson. No, I did not stick
to straight and level - I know what 4.5 G's feels like in an
inverted dive. I also know that formation flying is difficult
when your only previous experience is MSFS. And, yes, it was
all legal.

Now, Mxsmanic, how did I get to do that?

(if anyone else knows the answer, please don't spoil it for
our friend here)

BTW, flying left seat in a Jetranger is fun too. No, I did not
have the controls.

Brian
--
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LOL, that's the whole reason I fly from the right seat. I've been
instructing for twice as many hours as I have from the left seat, so if
I were to hop back into the left, I'd probably be sideloading the hell
out of those landings like the first time I switched to the right
during the CFI training.


Sylvain wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote:

Yes, but I presume that outside of flight instruction, it's unusual to
put someone else in the left seat (especially if that someone is not a
pilot).

it is unusual but mostly out of habit; not everything is duplicated,
but most of the stuff are reachable from either side. You have to
get used to some paralax effect but that's not a biggy; it is a
good idea though to first practice flying from the right seat with
someone qualified in the left: not so much because of what's inside
the cockpit, but because of the different perspective when looking
outside; at first, you end up climbing in left turns and diving
in right turns because you use the wrong reference relative to
the horizon; and landings are crooked as well.

I don't allow anyone to sit in the left seat because the right ejection seat
has been In-Op since I haven't been able to afford the inspection. What do
you expect? I only make $637/mo.

Sylvain wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote:
I'll remember to avoid back seats. I can get motion sickness in a
vehicle if there's a lot of movement and I can't see outside.

the view from the backseat is often more limited as well, and
ventilation not as good...

Nor is the heat as good (if any!). In the winter, you can freeze to
death in the back seat of a small plane without a blanket. while the
pilots' toes are roasting.

Kev