What about our main flight controls?
I have even come across some engine throttle controls where one has to pull a knob towards you to increase power. Another throttle control was positioned under the seat!! No instinct to be found there.
Which way is instinctive for the twist grip engine control in most helicopters?
Then incredulously all of our rudder controls are the wrong way round.
I posted the following some years ago.
Rudders in Reverse
Strange that all aircraft pilots have been retrained away from natural instincts and childhood learning for rudder yaw/directional control.
Most don't even realise that this happened during the first few hours of their training and have rarely been prompted to consider how extraordinary is the result..
Human steering on the ground may have started on horseback as the evolutionary beginning of the human steering process.
Then the learning progression through the tricycle, billycart, bicycle, motorcycle and motor vehicles.
Then go fly and the instructor introduces you to a rudder bar or the equivalent and surprise, surprise it works the opposite way round. Oops.
Generally takes 2/3 hours of diversionary concentration before the reversal starts to become sub-conscious - remember?
Test pilots and purists often speculate on the ability of the experienced pilot to operate nosewheel steering and rudder simultaneously on a landing roll-out without any apparent mental conflict. Perhaps if a nose wheel steering wheel was changed to a miniature rudder bar there would be considerable mental conflict or perhaps we have nerves with selective reversing crossovers.
Oddly I don't recall any difficulty with the tiller in the Beverley which one could imagine to be the spoke of a wheel.
I well remember being caught out in a Folland Gnat having a prototype full slab tail. With gear down at slow speed and normal full nose up trim, full back stick was inadequate to prevent nose down pitch. One was then forced to go for over-ride trim via a two way switch on the instrument panel. Instinctively I selected the switch down as though to instinctively rotate the nose up - Whoops. It had been installed the other way. A green field rapidly enlarging gets your attention. Happily a quick switch reversal sorted things out otherwise I would have had some interesting practice with inverted flying.