Captain on left... pilot on right
Hi there.
Great responses guys. Here's a little trivia for you...
In Australian Army twin engined helos, the captain of the aircraft usually sits on the left and the co-pilot on the right. Why?
Because any monkey can fly a helicopter (after he/she's been trained) but actually doing all the navigating, radio calls on up to 5 radios, maintaining situational awareness of the battlespace, leading a formation, staying away from people and things that can shoot you and all the other factors involved in military flying, make a captain's job more demanding that just poling an aircraft. So the captain of the aircraft who 'administers' the mission, sits in the left... and the co-pilot, who does the bulk of the flying, sits in the seat that's been designed as the primary FLYING PILOT position, ie the Right seat. That's not why it was designed that way, (the explanation for why the pilot sits on the RHS seems totally logical to me after reading the thread), but that's the way it's evolved.
An urban myth (who knows if it's true or not) has it that some of the earlier pilots were drawn from cavalry who mount their steeds from the left, therefore they would enter their aircraft from the left and subsequently, aircraft were designed to be entered from the left. Side-by-side seating in later aircraft, carried this tradition on. Nice story.
Good luck with the flying.
CB